At the Gates of Water and Fire
by roisaber
Summary: It's been eight years since Madoka's disappearance but Homua hasn't given up her fight for justice. She has a job hunting Abominations for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police with a new team of Mahou Shoujo under her command. But even with the Witches gone some curses still linger, and she uncovers threads of a plot that might shake the foundation of the heavens themselves.
1. Chapter 1: The Girl That Time Remembers

**Chapter 1: The Girl that Time Remembers**

It hadn't been easy to convince the Tokyo Metropolitan Police that Homura's words were anything but the ravings of a crazy person. However, when she was caught on camera preventing the Mayor's son from hanging himself using means not readily explicable, she'd been able to secure herself a badge and a salary courtesy of the municipal government. Convincing the other two magical girls - women, really - to join up had been even more complicated. But after so many years of being an outsider looking in, Homura was captain of the Special Investigations S Unit, tasked with rooting out Abominations wherever they could be found. Though many members of the Budget Oversight Committee thought her unit's detective work stank of overripe superstition, there was no denying that the woman got results.

Detective Anderusun fidgeted nervously at Homura's shoulder.

"Well, what?" she demanded.

"Captain Akemi, it's just that - I really don't know if motorcycles are in the SHISU budget this year."

Jyohan Anderusun was the unit's token everything. Token male, token foreigner, and token representative of the interests of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. He had blond hair, green eyes, and he stuck out like a sore thumb everywhere he went. It was his job to make sure that the unit was actually doing something - anything - of value with their yearly budget allocation. Though he couldn't do much to combat the Abominations himself he certainly wasn't entirely without use. After all, _somebody_ had to make coffee and liaison with the big suits back at headquarters. Homura offered him a devilish smile.

"Well, we have enough for three, don't we?" she asked sweetly.

Detective Anderusun deflated.

"Good afternoon, honored clients!"

A fat but enthusiastic salesman waddled up to greet them. He pumped each of their hands furiously in turn.

"Is there anything in particular I can interest you in today?" He recognized their uniforms. "Oh - you're with the police."

Homura nodded.

"What department? My son works the Akihabara beat. Maybe you know him?"

"We're with the specials," Anderusun offered proudly.

The salesman looked sorry he asked, but quickly recovered. "Are you here for business or pleasure?"

"I'm looking to buy three motorcycles for my squad. I'm want that's something that's fast and sleek but can still take a lot of punishment," Homura said.

"What's your budget?" the salesman asked casually.

Before Anderusun could answer, Homura put in, "Oh, whatever."

The representative led the pair past row after row of cars and into the two wheel section. The salesman droned on about the weather, about his son's job, about the various models of car they passed. Homura largely tuned him out and passively analyzed all the vehicles for purchase, waiting for the perfect motorcycle to find her. Then, she saw it. A bright, shining diamond amongst all the lumps of coal on the lot.

"I love it," she breathed.

"Oh, those!" The dealership representative was ecstatic about how easily this sale was going. "That's a Suzuki Hayabusa. You won't find a better bike anywhere in town. Top speed is just under 300 kph, advanced racing suspension, lightweight frame - if you've got the budget for it, there's no way you can go wrong."

"I want to drive it. Now."

"But Captain Akemi - " Detective Anderusun started, before being silenced by a well-placed glare.

The salesman scuttled off to retrieve the key, and Homura eyed the bike hungrily. She had always been talented at picking out the very top of the line and most expensive item out of any given set, and this time was no exception. Naturally, there'd be no way to get it anywhere near 300 kph in the city, even at night - but power like that was still intoxicating. Anderusun quietly fumed until he worked up the courage to protest aloud.

"Captain, there is _no way_ the Budget Committee will approve this."

Homura just laughed at him. "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission."

"Seriously! This will take up 90% of this year's departmental budget, and it's only May!"

"We'll make do."

But Anderusun stood his ground. "The boss will bite your head off and _eat_ it. Mine, too."

Homura posed, and said with affected grandeur, "We'll just have to convince him that these motorcycles are indispensable to the security of Tokyo. Anyway, I can pick up the tab on mine. Short selling Citigroup really paid off this year."

Anderusun was mollified, but only somewhat. The salesman returned with the keys and tossed them to Homura.

"You'll have to forgive me, but can I get a copy of your driver's license for our records?" the man asked nervously, not wanting to throw a wrench into such an easy sale.

Homura just shrugged. "Sure."

The three of them pulled the bike around to the front of the building, while the salesman entered her information into their database. Of course, Homura understood; while she had no intention of crashing, the dealership had to be protected in the event that anything went wrong. She fondled the bike lovingly, and fiddled with the shifter in preparation for her test drive. It'd been months since she'd been on a motorcycle but she'd heard it was like riding a bicycle - you just climb on and your body does all the remembering for you. The fat dealer returned with her license and then gave her the go-ahead to take it out. She clambered onto the saddle, turned the ignition, and the powerful engine roared to life.

Homura opened the throttle and was immediately almost thrown from the beastly machine. She quickly skidded to a halt, stunned by its acceleration.

"Are you alright!?" the salesman asked with concern. "That Hayabusa is a monster - it's probably a lot more powerful than the motorbikes you're used to."

Homura paused for a minute to slow her pounding heart, and then eased the throttle back open. This time, she was able to exit the dealership without incident.

It was the time of day when most people were starting out on their evening commutes home from the office, so Homura found some winding sidestreets and played with the powerful engine. Each time she loosed the throttle she was shocked all over again at the powerful engine rumbling between her legs. There was an undeniable sexuality to bike, and she felt herself blush even as she swerved in between a parked car and a truck unloading goods into a convenience store. Though she had obviously made her decision the moment she spotted the bike, she roared down alleyways and wove between lines of traffic for a full thirty minutes before finally returning to the dealership to finalize her purchase. The salesman and Detective Anderusun were waiting nervously for her safe return.

"I'll take it," Homura announced without a moment's hesitation. "Three of them. Two on the company card, and I'll buy this one for myself."

The salesman's face fell just a little. "You won't be financing these?"

"Nope. If you can get me through all the paperwork in thirty minutes, I'll pass you an extra twenty thousand yen."

His eyes lit up, and he herded them into his small office in the back of the building. In the end, it took thirty five minutes of scrambling, signing, documenting, and committing before she was finally free to leave on her new motorbike, but she gave the man the bonus anyway. Detective Anderusun followed her around like a nervous puppy, laughing too hard at all the salesman's lame jokes and stuttering through a brief biography and how he ended up in Japan from Denmark. The sun was just setting when the two finally made it out of the dealership, and the warm spring day had not yet fully surrendered to the cool of night.

"I'll just take a taxi home," Anderusun offered.

"Nope! If you're going to be riding with us in emergencies, you may as well get used to it now." Homura climbed on the bike and patted the space behind her. "Get on."

"I don't have a helmet. Neither do _you_, for that matter."

Homura laughed. "What, are you afraid of getting pulled over?"

"I'm afraid of dying," Anderusun muttered, but he obediently climbed on behind her.

"Put your arms around my waist to steady yourself. Follow my movements and lean into turns," she instructed before firing up the Hayabusa's engine.

Anderusun was nervous about getting so close to a beautiful woman who was, technically, his boss, but it was obvious that she wouldn't take no for an answer. He wrapped his arms around her warm torso, unable to completely block the perfumed scent of her hair. The rumbling beneath him made him distinctly uncomfortable, and he shifted in his seat so as not to offend his superior. Despite his numerous misgivings, Homura drove conservatively and returned them to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters without incident. Andersusun could have kissed the ground when he finally got off the roaring motorbike.

Homura held open the door to the building for him. "Coming up?"

"Ah, no, actually," Andersusun said. "You gave me the evening off to take my girlfriend to the opera. Remember?"

Homura shrugged. "Okay, sure."

So, she rode the elevator alone to the Special Investigation S Unit's offices on the eighteenth floor.

"Hey, Homura-chan," Yukari said with a wave.

Of course she'd still be here. Yukari was a nerd, a technophile, and an unrepentant gearhead. She was also the group's second Maho Shoujo. Yukari was 21 years old, brown haired and fit, and her idea of a great night was a Linux box without a network card driver. She also had the most terrible fashion sense imaginable whenever she wasn't in her SHISU uniform. Right now, she was wearing a stained white t-shirt and overalls while she worked on her current experimental project. It was her latest secret weapon against the Abominations - a machine that could in theory detect their presence to a range of ten miles.

"How's the Abomination Detector Mark 4 coming along, Yukari?"

The other woman struck a pose, and then deflated. "Terrible. It doesn't do anything."

To emphasize her point, Yukari flipped the breaker and fed power into the machine. There was an immediate crackle of electricity, and a small, sad wisp of smoke drifted up from the nest of wires that made up the heart of the dubious contraption. Yukari yelped and cut the power.

"Well, it did _that_," Homura pointed out sardonically.

"Damn it! I'm going to have to spend the next 2 hours trying to figure out which capacitor blew!"

"Oh, I bought a present for each of you girls," Homura said, pulling out her phone. "Check it out."

Homura showed Yukari a photograph she took of the new Hayabusa motorcycle. Yukari's eyes got wide.

"You so didn't!" she cried.

"I so did."

Yukari started laughing hysterically. "When Major Takano finds out, he's going to - "

"It's our little secret for now. They're being delivered tomorrow morning. Oh, where's Riko? I want to show her, too."

"She disappeared again," Yukari said with a good-natured shrug. "I haven't seen her since lunch."

"Tch. Fine. If you see her, please tell her I'm on the Terrace."

Yukari waved. "Can do!"

Homura rode the elevator up to the 30th floor terrace of the new Tokyo Metropolitan Police building. The nanomanufacturing boom had been kind to Tokyo, and the skyline was cluttered with offices and vertical factories that had been spawned in the aftermath of the great, global Depression. After three lost decades in a row, the Japanese economy had finally gotten back on its feet with the development of atomic-scale machines, and for the first time in more than a generation, the Japanese population was finally starting to grow again. The new police building was just one example of Japan's newly recovered prosperity, and Homura savored the opportunity to feel the wind in her hair high above street level. Even from the 30th floor, she could still hear the bustle of the city below. Trucks carrying the vital goods of Tokyo's commercial enterprise honked and jostled for position. Taxis darted between lanes, looking for new fares. Homura went to the very edge of the roof and gazed at the vast metropolis sprawled out before her, and she smiled. Sometimes it was nice to be on the upper level looking down.

Involuntarily, she reached up and released her ponytail from the red ribbon that bound its raven strands together. Madoka's ribbon. It was funny - even though it was eight years since Walpurgisnacht, sometimes it seemed like it had been only yesterday. Homura toyed with the ribbon in her hands, watching planes make their final approach into Narita International Airport. Suddenly, she felt someone draw up behind her.

"Captain. Yukari-san said you were looking for me."

Homura cast a sidelong glance at Riko, the third magical girl in the Special Investigations S Unit.

"Yes."

Riko was a bit of an odd duck. She was tall and lanky, and she didn't quite fill out the chest of her Special Investigations S Unit uniform. She had a small library of colored contact lenses at home, and she chose one or even two colors each day seemingly at random, in spite of her magically perfected vision. Her hair was naturally black, but she dyed over it with red and it came out looking maroon. She was prone to fugues and fits of moodiness, though she was always reliable in a pinch.

Riko nodded at the ribbon in Homura's hand. "You're still thinking about her, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Homura admitted with a pained smile. "She saved us, you know. Not just you, and me, and Yukari - she saved every Mahou Shoujo that ever lived or even ever will be born. She sacrificed it all so that we could live. Now our lifespans are measured in decades, instead of weeks. And we owe it all to her. And she's gone and I can't even tell her that."

"I'm sure she understands how you feel. I… also know what it's like, to lose someone important."

The two women stood side-by-side and gazed over the metropolis. Tokyo was truly a city that never slept; two hours after sundown, and it still looked like the busiest time of day.

Homura finally nodded. "It still hurts."

"I wish I could have known her."

Riko's entire family had been killed in an Abomination attack. She had only barely made it out with her life, thanks to Kyubey. Afterwards, Riko had spent many years wandering aimlessly, homeless and embittered, before Homura convinced her to join the S Unit. She still had lines on her face that no woman a mere twenty three years old should have to bear. Homura felt enormous sympathy for her. After a reasonable amount of time spent sharing a comfortable silence, lost in their respective thoughts, Homura finally spoke again.

"I got you something," she said with a crooked grin.

Riko replied, "I know. Yukari told me."

"What!? Damn it! That girl, it was supposed to be a surprise!"

"I was _very_ surprised," Riko said with a smile. "Sorry."

The two gazed back at the city for a minute.

"Yukari said you disappeared after lunch," Homura said.

Riko nodded. "Yeah. I heard a rumor that I thought was worth checking out. Well - I heard tell that people have been _creating_ Abominations."

Homura started. "What?"

"I know. I didn't think it was possible, either. As far as I know, it isn't. I talked to a few people I know in Kabuchiko. Nobody knew much of anything - just the usual litany of rapes, robbery, stabbings, and suicides. Still... " Riko let the city hold her gaze for a minute. "Still, I'm worried. When there's this much smoke, there's bound to be a fire somewhere."

"Have you tried asking Kyubey?"

Riko just shrugged. "I haven't seen the little bastard since we killed the Abomination in Ginza. God only knows what villainy he's up to."

"Well." Homura deftly threaded Madoka's ribbon back into her hair. "If there's nothing else, I'm going home. Be sure to be at work by eight hundred hours tomorrow morning and we can all go for a ride."

"Sounds good."

There was an awkward pause while Homura collected herself to leave. Riko's cool demeanor threw her off balance and reminded her of the time she spent, so long ago, trying to shut out the entire world. But it was impossible to blame the other woman; she was still trying to piece together a life that had been shattered by the relentless cruelty of the Abominations. Homura broke the tableau by waving and heading back to the elevator. Riko just went back to silently watching the twinkling lights of the city.

Homura had ridden to work on the freshly renovated subway system, but decided to drive her new motorcycle back to her apartment. One of the first things she did after getting a job at the Tokyo Metropolitan was get a new apartment; so much the better to forget what her life had been like between Madoka's disappearance and her high school graduation. Homura considered herself a new woman - still cool and collected, but not the cold, emotionless engine of destruction that formerly drove so many people away. She briefly considered going to a bar for dinner, but no - the truth was, she was in the mood for a quiet evening at home, where she wouldn't have to turn down the advances of those few male strangers undaunted by her police uniform. The motorcycle vibrated between her legs mercilessly. Homura blushed as she threaded through the evening traffic; she had a good idea of what she'd be doing before drifting off to an evening's rest.

Her apartment was in a new building in the fashionable Shinjuku district. Homura wasn't yet so old as to be jaded by the lights, sounds, and cosplayers thronging the broad boulevards that criss-crossed through the Tokyo satellite. A group of drunk guys catcalled to her as she roared by on the Hayabusa, and she was simultaneously irritated and gratified. The bike certainly was an attention-getter; what had she expected? The grate opened at her arrival, reading her identity through her eyes. Her dedicated parking spot, which had been empty since she moved in, now looked like an inviting respite. Fortunately, the other tenants of her building were all out making everything they could of a Wednesday night, and Homura made it back to her spacious apartment without having to trade small talk with anyone.

A box of groceries was waiting on her stoop. Obviously, the fridge had once again overridden her preference file and done all the shopping for her. She cursed the thing under her breath - no matter how diligently she hand-edited the XML files that drove its decision making, it always seemed to get her goat in the end. Then she caught sight of the six-pack of saison still chilled by the thermal insulation of the crate.

"I'll forgive you this time, fridge," she said as she keyed open the door to her apartment.

Homura hauled the crate into her kitchen, cracked open one of the cans, and quickly put away the uncalled for groceries. The beer was one of her favorite brews - spiced with cinnamon and cardamom, it had the bitter character of a pale ale while retaining a spicy, fruity overtone that spoke to everything in her heart. The holovision had automatically queued several television programs and games; she let it pick a show at random and finished one, and then two beers while it portrayed the comic stylings of a certain group of candy-colored ponies. Next, Homura opened up 2chan in her internet browser. The biggest topic of conversation was the mysteries series of infant kidnappings that had shaken the city to its very core. Homura sipped a beer and skimmed the threads. At least ten were confirmed missing, and the theories ranged from the bizarre to the macabre to the outright implausible.

Though it wasn't her department, she made a note of what details she could find. It was amazing that even in this day of mass technology and video surveillance nobody had seen anything for certain. Homura opened some of the photos that purported to show the culprit, but there was no real proof of anything – a male nurse carrying a baby outside the frame was hardly conclusive evidence of malfeasance. She sighed. Even in a world without the Witches, and even putting the Abominations aside, people could be so sick, sometimes. She closed her browser, took a shower, gave into an itch that had been bothering her all afternoon, and strained her senses to their absolute maximum before allowing herself to fall asleep. She could feel Riko's cool overwatch of the city and Yukari's unbridled enthusiasm for whatever it was she was up to, but no characteristic stink that would indicate an Abomination running lose. Satisfied, she let herself drift off into the formless ocean of sleep.

The next morning arrived with the latest pop idol crooning on Homura's apartment-spanning stereo system. She rubbed bleariness out of her eyes and checked the time. Somehow, she'd managed to sleep through her first alarm, and then the first subsequent snooze. After warning her juniors about being late, no less. She instructed her kitchen to make her Breakfast #4 while she hurriedly assembled her uniform.

"Too little sleep – or too much?" she asked herself aloud while waiting impatiently for the multitask robot to finish cooking her waffles.

It dinged, and she stuffed the piping hot pastry into her mouth without a moment's hesitation. The elevator seemed to take all day to arrive, and she almost gave up and took the stairs when its doors finally slid open. There was a cute college-aged man from an upper floor also riding it down to the parking garage, and Homura felt a sudden flush of embarrassment when she realized she still had half a waffle sticking out of her mouth.

"Mmpfh," she apologized.

The man laughed graciously and held the door for her. "Going to work?"

She chewed, chewed, and swallowed.

"Yeah. I'll catch Hell from my juniors if I'm late this morning."

"Better late than never."

"But better never late," Homura replied reflexively, and then the pair shared a laugh.

The elevator arrived at the parking garage, and the man from upstairs waved her through the doors first. Homura was embarrassed to realize that she hadn't even asked for his name, but it was too late now. Maybe she'd see him in the building's gym or pool later this week and they could have a good laugh about waffles. As it was, she waved and then hurried over to her motorcycle, fumbling with the keys until she found the unfamiliar shape associated with her new vehicle. It obediently roared to life, and Homura tried not to fidget while waiting for the parking garage's door to fully open and release her out into the world.

It was seven fifty eight when she pulled up in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police tower, and her two juniors were on time and waiting expectantly for her. Their motorcycles glittered in the morning sun.

"I thought _you_ were going to be late!" Yukari gushed.

Yukari was always looking for someone else to share in her self-imposed misfortunes.

"Not today. Is there any paperwork hanging over our heads?"

"Nothing that can't wait," Riko answered. "Besides, I made Anderusun-san sign us in as being on vehicle training."

Yukari said, "Oooh, tricky."

"Excellent, it'll be a few hours before anybody comes looking for us," Homura said.

"Where do you want to ride?" asked Riko.

"Odaiba!" Yukari cut in before Homura could answer.

Riko looked at Homura questioningly, but the captain just shrugged.

"Okay, sure. Shall we?"

The three women pulled out into traffic. Riko, the responsible one, was wearing a helmet, but Homura and Yukari eschewed one in favor of feeling the cool morning wind blowing through their hair. After all, it was unlikely that a Mahou Shoujo would be killed by a mere vehicle accident, and since they were police it was customary for other officers to look the other way in the case of a minor traffic infraction. The streets were cluttered with commuters making their way to their offices, and trucks hauling supplies to the convenience stores and restaurants scattered around the city like carelessly thrown sand. The three uniformed policewomen on expensive bikes drew more than a few stares from passersby; it hadn't occurred to Homura that they'd get so much attention. Even on a weekday Odaiba was busy with tourists, and schoolchildren chased each other around the leisure district's broad parks. The three women parked their bikes and grabbed coffee and bagels from a kiosk, bantering about nothing.

"How's the Abomination detector coming along?" Homura asked.

"It's still a disaster," Yukari answered with a pout. "It's either not sensitive enough, or it's so sensitive that any Abomination activity totally fries the circuits. I can't figure out what's missing."

Riko shrugged. "Maybe it's just not meant to work. Maybe only humans were meant to be able to perceive the Abomination."

"Impossible. If it's real, a machine can see it," Yukari protested.

"You can say that when you've got it working."

"Girls, girls," Homura interjected. "There's no need to argue."

"I'm _not_ arguing," Yukari countered.

Riko was helpless against the devils of her lesser nature. "Yes you are."

Yukari opened her mouth to protest, but she was cut short by the biggest pulse of demonic Abomination energy that any of them had experienced in years. It was obvious to Yukari from Homura's drained face and Riko's wide irises that the other two women had felt it, too. And then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped, leaving nothing but a hollow ringing in their ears.

"What the Hell was that?" Riko asked in a hushed voice.

Yukari added, "And where did it go? That much energy…"

Homura felt sick. The last time she'd felt so much concentrated evil was – but she shook her head, and tried to get the stench of it out of her mind.

"Whatever it was, we'd better find out and put a stop to it," Homura whispered. "Did anybody sense where it came from?"

Riko measured her words carefully. "I'm not sure, but it definitely came from somewhere in Tokyo proper."

"We'd better get back to the city, then." Homura stared across the bay back at the Japanese capital. "Let's go. Quickly."

They made it halfway across the RainbowBridge when the sensation came back, erupting like a quasar of unadulterated evil. Homura could hear Riko's telepathic yelp of distress and Yukari almost lost control of her bike, stunned by the shockingly intense volcano of agony that was snuffed out almost as quickly as it appeared.

_This is bad_, Riko said telepathically. _Have you ever experienced anything like this before Homura?_

_It brings back… bad memories_, she replied.

_Yeah._

_Put on your sirens,_ Homura instructed. _Whatever's going on, we need to get there fast._

She reached down and put on the portable siren she'd requisitioned out of the police inventory. The three bikes wailed and commuters scrambled to clear out of the way so that they could pass. They made it off the other side of the RainbowBridge, and Homura strained herself to the utmost to try to guess at where the terrible energy had come from.

_I think it was right_, Riko said.

They turned and followed their memories, trying to catch the scent, but the energy had once again disappeared completely. An Abomination could leave residual energetic slime for hours even after it had been killed, and these bursts of energy were on a whole other level from the Abominations they usually faced. Something was clearly amiss but Homura couldn't even begin to guess at what. Then a third nova blew up directly ahead of them, from somewhere inside a strip mall that had been closed for renovations for years and looked like it might never reopen.

_In there!_ she cried.

The three women skidded into the parking lot, and Homura almost forgot to deploy her motorcycle's kickstand in her haste to put a stop to whatever was causing the nightmare sensation. The three women rushed up to the doors and prepared to kick them in, but they needn't have bothered; Homura tested the entrance to the mini mall, and it pulled open easily at her touch. They crept inside, and Homura's sense of unease only grew worse.

_There's no A-Field_, Riko whispered telepathically before Homura could make the same observation. _No A-Field, no Abomination?_

"Something is very wrong here," Yukari hissed aloud.

_Let's do a sweep._

Riko cut in. _Ugh, what's that smell?_

The three magical girls paused, and strained their senses to maximum. Riko was right – from somewhere in the building, the smell of shit and piss and the sticky, sweet scent of fresh blood spilled out into the hallway that separated the twin lines of empty stores. Homura drew her bow. Riko and Yukari followed her lead; Riko summoned her katana and wakizashi, and, as for Yukari, it only stood to reason that her weapon was a huge, wickedly blunt sledgehammer. Homura caught sight of flickering candlelight just behind the fluttering tarp inside one of the empty stores, just as Riko gasped at a familiar noise.

_Babies crying_, she intimated to the other two, shocked. _In there._

Unbelieving, they crept towards the source of the sound – and the smell. There was a piercing shriek of terror from one of the little infants, and Homura threw caution to the wind and broke out into a sprint, followed immediately by the other two. The scene that greeted them when they burst through the plastic and into the unoccupied storefront stopped them dead in their tracks.

There was a large, wooden table in the center of the room, cheap black composite wood and stained with blood. A stainless steel chopping block sat on the table and it was flecked with unspeakable ichor. All around it, there were Bunsen burners, alembics, crucibles, and other tools that looked like they would see more use in a medieval alchemy lab than a modern research facility. Blood bubbled in one of the alembics, filling the air with a stench that even a fully-grown Abomination couldn't match. But it wasn't the table that brought them up short. It was what was in the room's corner. There was a playpen stained with blood and filled with a naked mass of writhing infants, some alive, and some dead and mutilated. Pudgy arms and legs struggled to escape from a floor matted with biological filth and corpses, but the sides had been reinforced with lumber and there was no way for such small, uncoordinated creatures to escape from their terrible prison. Riko gasped, and Yukari couldn't stop herself from doubling over and vomiting. Homura tore her eyes away to confront the Abomination responsible.

It was a short figure almost entirely obscured by black, blood-splattered robes. All she could make out of his face in the dim light was a white moustache and a bulbous, crinkled nose. To her horror she realized that he held another squirming infant, preparing it for the chopping block, but he had been as surprised to see the Magical Girls as they were to confront him. For the moment, he was stopped short. Homura drew back the string of her bow and aimed as carefully as she could - she didn't want to run the risk of hitting the child, or even allowing it to be crushed under the weight of the demon when it fell. The Abomination smiled under his cowl, and casually – carelessly – tossed the infant to the unfinished concrete floor.

Wordlessly following her tactical training, Riko slid up beside Homura to cover her right flank. Yukari, on the other hand, had collapsed uselessly to the floor. She was no stranger to the kind of horror Abominations were capable of, but had been overwhelmed with hysterical sobbing at the sight of the little ones being treated so cruelly. For a moment, she completely lost her concentration, and her bow disappeared back into the ether from which it had come. The Abomination smiled, reached into his robes, and pulled out a wicked looking revolver.

"Captain!" Riko cried. "He's _human._"

"Unbelievable," Homura muttered.

She barely had the presence of mind to dodge when the vile priest fired his first round at her, but fortunately, his aim wasn't up to par with his intentions and his shot went wide. He cocked the prehistoric firearm, tracking her to fire again. In one fluid motion, Homura drew her service pistol, fired, and struck the man right in his center of mass. He went down. If possible, the babies wailed even louder, their sensitive ears erupting in agony from the hot crack of gunfire.

Homura slowly slid forward, keeping her gun trained on the black-cloaked figure. He didn't move, and she kept a careful eye on his hand to make sure it wasn't inching towards the revolver that had struck the ground and skidded several feet when he fell. She got close enough to hear his breathing over the sobbing of the infant babies, and she could tell by his rattling, strained breath that he wasn't going to live long enough for an ambulance to arrive. Then she caught sight of a familiar figure lurking in a darkened shadow.

"Kyubey. What have you done?" she demanded in a harsh whisper.

"I had nothing to do with this," Kyubey said.

Damn him, as emotionless as ever. Not defensive, not distressed, not anything at all. Just the same calm diffidence that she had known for years, now.

He continued, "I could feel your anger and terror and I decided to investigate. This is very strange."

"Strange." The word tasted like ash in her mouth.

Riko asked, "What do you know about this Kyubey?"

"Nothing for certain," he answered with his characteristic "honesty."

"But?" Homura prompted.

Yukari had finally recovered from her hysteria, and she was at the playpen, freeing the children and cleaning them up as best as she could. She was going to need a new uniform.

"Well, it's not without precedent," Kyubey admitted. "When we were attempting to utilize your civilization for maximum power, we tried similar experiments with children in the belief that their agony might be your peoples' greatest source of the energy we need to overcome net entropy. In the end we abandoned the experiments because the naturally-occurring Abominations proved to have a greater energy output when they fused with humans; we just had to learn to harness it. Perhaps this is a case of convergent technological evolution? He may have been trying to replicate our experiments."

Homura shivered.

Riko said, "Captain – what does this mean?"

"It means… it means, we have trouble."

**Chapter 1… End**

[Author:] Hellloooo~~~~~! Thank you so much for reading part 1 of my story, I really hope you enjoyed it!

Did you know I also write _original fiction_? No really, it's true – I have 4 full novels, over 450,000 words, and I'm really hoping to get them published some day. If you enjoyed this, do you have any useful advice on how to break into the brutal and thankless industry that _is_ fiction writing? I would really appreciate it! I promise that I have big plans for this To Be Continued so please tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2: Postmeridie

**Chapter 2: Postmeridie**

It was awkward to walk down the streets and see your own face reflected back to you by the TV news. Even more awkward was the byline: Hero cop saves some. The public was overjoyed to see the child snatcher stopped dead in his tracks, but the fact was that SHISU had been unable to prevent the worst from happening to some of the children. Now, Homura would have to answer for it. She was called into a meeting with Major Takano, the police commission, the Mayor, and every unhappy department head in the whole building.

"What do we even _pay_ you for?" The head of Section 2, Major Fujimoto, was livid. "Every year my department budget gets cut so you can gallivant around town with your friends. Aren't these exactly the type of incidents you're supposed to prevent?"

The Mayor tried to shush him, but Homura spoke up for herself.

"The only reason _all_ of those children didn't die was because my squad was there to prevent it. Nobody else would have been able to find the location of the crime before he could finish his dirty experiment."

Major Fujimoto had never liked her. "And who gave him the idea for these experiments in the first place? Do you think it could have been you, and your superstitious, unprofessional lackeys? I think this incident calls into question your entire operation."

Major Takano was a slow, quiet, diligent man. He was well-respected at the Tokyo Metropolitan despite his frequent forays into less than orthodox investigative methodologies. When he spoke, people listened, and he chose that moment to finally stick up for his subordinate.

"What Captain Akemi says is absolutely accurate," he announced calmly. "She had this case wrapped up before we even had a lead. Regardless of private opinion, eight infant children have been safely reunited with their families thanks solely to her and her team."

Major Fujimoto glowered but piped down.

"This has been a most unsettling incident," the Mayor said, rubbing at his temple with the frame of his glasses. "Captain Akemi, what can we do to prevent a repeat of this in the future?"

Homura took a deep breath. "I don't really know, sir. My… outside consultant said something about convergent evolution. He seemed to believe that it's possible that this might be an inevitable first step towards an attempt to develop, uh, a very dangerous form of foreign technology."

Major Yoshima, head of Section 4, visibly darkened. "Killing infants is R&D?"

"It's too early to really know for certain."

Major Fujimoto spoke up again. "This all sounds like a lot of vague nonsense to me."

"I'm sure you've all read my report. It came to thirty six pages in total," Homura said, struggling to maintain her cool. "What more do you want from me?"

"We just want to prevent anyone else from getting hurt," Major Takano told her gently.

"That's what I want, too," Homura breathed.

"I think we've accomplished everything we can here today, ladies and gentlemen," the Mayor said, pushing his chair back away from the table. "Thank you very much Captain Akemi, Majors. You are dismissed."

Homura gratefully gathered her paperwork and rushed out of the room before anyone could try to stop her. The way people in the Metropolitan Police were treating her, you'd think she was the one who'd killed a bunch of children instead of being the one to save them. Other officers gave her a wide berth in the hallway, as if she were contagious. She pushed her way aboard a waiting elevator, and no one else was willing to look her in the eyes.

Riko, Yukari, and Jyohan were waiting for her back in the secluded SHISU office.

"They let you out alive," Riko observed coolly.

Homura forced a smile. "Barely."

Yukari's eyes were red and puffy; she had obviously been crying.

"Sorry, Captain," she said, wiping her nose with a handkerchief. "Yesterday was the worst thing that's ever happened to me."

On an impulse, Homura leaned forward and gave her a hug, which the normally cheerful girl returned gratefully.

"At least nobody's griped about our operational budget in the past twenty four hours," Jyohan said, attempting to crack a joke.

"So, what next?" Riko asked.

Homura took a deep breath. "We keep doing what we always do. We try to hunt down and destroy Abominations before anyone can get hurt. Riko-san, I have a question… on Wednesday, you mentioned that there was a rumor that people were trying to _create_ Abominations. Can you tell me more?"

Riko stared at her boots uncomfortably before answering.

"Well, it's just a rumor," she explained. "But there's a small cult in Kabuchiko called Shining Star, and they allegedly worship the Abominations. They're supposed to be trying to take over the world."

"Was that asshole from yesterday one of them?"

"I don't know," Riko answered levelly.

"I haven't heard of Shining Star," a new voice said, "but I can tell you this – there has been unusual alien activity around your world of late."

"Kyubey." Homura greeted him with irritation. "How long have you been skulking there?"

"Long enough. I don't know if it's relevant, but we've detected several unidentified alien craft passing within the Earth's airspace. Until now, it wasn't considered much of a threat, but it could be that another species is attempting to challenge our human energy monopoly."

"Your – _what?_" Riko demanded.

Jyohan was nonplussed. He'd long since become accustomed to the three women carrying on a conversation with empty space.

Kyubey went on. "Naturally, you try to prevent Abominations from fusing with humans at every opportunity. Fortunately, this does not put your species and our at cross purposes – it doesn't matter to us whether the Abomination has fused or not when you kill them, just so long as you get the job done. This releases their pent up anti-entropic A-Field, which we in turn are able to collect."

The three Mahou Shoujo nodded; they knew this part already.

"We then use this energy for a variety of purposes. First and most importantly, we use this energy to prevent the universe from giving way to entropy and eventually dissipating into thermal equilibrium. Then we have some left over to power our own technology including things like memory uploading and the manufacture of new bodies as necessary. But lastly…"

"Lastly?" Homura asked.

"In galactic space, this energy is used as a form of currency," Kyubey answered calmly. "We trade it for goods and services that we cannot or prefer not to create on our own planets."

"_You also use us as money?_" Riko hissed.

"Yes. After all, you haven't yet progressed to the point of being able to participate in galactic economics, and the collection of this energy doesn't do you any direct harm. We protect the Earth from incursions by privateers and gently nudge you towards the level of development you require for interstellar flight."

Homura asked sardonically, "And you're keeping some of this currency in a trust fund for human beings, right, so we can take advantage of our own resources when we finally ascend into a galactic civilization?"

Sarcasm was lost on Kyubey. "I'm sure we'll be able to work out a mutually beneficial strategy when the time comes."

There was a brief paused in the conversation as each of the women mulled over this information.

"What does all this mean?" Yukari asked, finally joining the conversation again.

"It may mean that somebody is challenging our monopoly of energy production on Earth," Kyubey said. "And you have seen for yourself that that is not a desirable state of affairs for you."

Homura remembered the bloody table, and shivered.

"So what can we do to get rid of them?" Riko asked. "I don't trust your people, but I guess you're a better option than these… other alien interlopers."

Kyubey answered with careful precision. "I don't know. It is a subject of growing debate for us."

Riko grimaced. "So it's just carry on, and hope that another alien-brainwashed psycho doesn't try to kill a bunch of kids again?"

"Perhaps you got lucky," Kyubey said cryptically. "Perhaps they got all the data they needed from the previous incident."

With that, he jumped off Homura's workstation, landed lightly on the floor, padded into a shadow and disappeared.

"Was that your alien again?" Jyohan asked.

"The very same."

"How do we know he's not quietly behind this?" Jyohan further inquired.

"Maybe he is," Homura said, toying with her ribbon. "But somehow I don't think so. There might be another alien factor involved that we haven't yet accounted for."

The first cicadas chirped outside, and the building's central air conditioning had not yet caught up to the increasing warmth of late spring. Boxes of half-eaten take out were cluttered around the workspace; it was Yukari's doing, no doubt. Her half-assembled contraptions turned up everywhere in their small three person office, and it was a wonder that anything ever got completed considering how easy it was to step on them. The blinds were shut tight, and apart from an underpowered desk lamp, the only light in the room came from the cracks between the blinds and the wall. Though it was only the mid-afternoon, Homura was completely exhausted from her official grilling.

"I'm going to the bar," she announced. "Is anybody else in?"

"I'll come," Riko said, surprising her.

Jyohan agreed. "I could use a stiff drink."

Yukari flashed a pained smile. "Sorry. I think I'll just stay here, work on my Abomination detector, and try to get my mind off of things."

"Okay," Homura said. "Call us if you need anything."

The three wanted a quiet, undisturbed drink, so they chose a nondescript bar near the police headquarters. They ordered a generous plate of fried tempura, which the waitress brought in short order. Jyohan ordered a whiskey and coke, Riko ordered a bottle of midrange sake, and Homura herself chose a bottle of craft brew imported from America. The three traded stories, and Homura was pleased to see that after each of them had gone through a couple beverages, they were largely in high spirits. Then, Homura felt a ringing in her ears that could only indicate one thing.

"Riko. It's an Abomination," she said.

"I feel it too." The other Mahou Shoujo looked nervous. "God, I hope it's not a repeat of last time."

"Should we call Yukiko?"

"No… we can handle it ourselves."

Jyohan shifted nervously. "Is it another one of those things?"

"Yes." Homura nodded. "You stay here."

"But, I want to help," the man protested.

Homura grimaced. In a way, she sympathized with the man; it was clear he wanted to be more than a dog for the same department heads that had put her through Hell earlier that day.

"I'm sorry," she said gently. "But you can't see them, you can't touch them, and you can't even shoot them. It's not your fault but you'd be nothing but a liability."

She winced as she realized how harsh it sounded, but it was a fact.

"Damn it." Jyohan stared into his half-empty glass. "I should just get a transfer to a beat."

"No, don't!" Homura protested.

Riko put a hand on her shoulder. "Captain. We have to go."

She nodded, and the two left a five thousand yen bill without waiting for change.

In spite of her justifiable concern, the two officers were able to exterminate the small group of Abominations without any difficulty. Unlike Witches, the Abominations tended to travel in packs, and what they lacked in tactical thinking they often made up for in numbers. Homura fired on them with her bow, styled so closely to Madoka's, drawing their attention so that Riko could sneak around and flank them with her close-range swords. After killing the last one they thoroughly searched the area, but in the end it seemed like they had dispensed with every last one before it had been able to fuse with a human. That, at least, was a profound relief.

Jyohan was still at the bar when they returned, well into his sixth drink and visibly hammered.

"You showed them what for, right?" he asked, slurring his words and punching the air for effect. Homura had to steady him so he wouldn't fall over.

"We got them. Sheesh, you could have waited for us," Homura said.

"I'm useless," he groaned. "I'm a good for nothing log."

Homura shook her head. "You're not a log. Here, I'll get you a glass of water."

The two Mahou Shoujo made Jyohan drink two full glasses of water under their watchful eyes. In the end, Homura had to help him home, carefully guiding him through the blaring LEDs of late evening Tokyo. His girlfriend was over at his apartment, and Homura gratefully remanded him into her custody for the night. She only had time to shower before crashing, grateful to put another difficult day behind her.

Evil didn't take the weekends off, and the three Mahou Shoujo assembled early the next morning to perform a thorough sweep of the city on their motorcycles. They left Jyohan behind at the office to handle interdepartmental relations; an unenviable task since the most recent incident still hadn't blown over. They followed a route carefully planned by Captain Homura to get maximum coverage. Until the Abomination Detector Mark 4 worked as advertised, they had only their own senses to rely on for rooting out the demons. They were interrupted in their sweep by an APB on a suspect in a stabbing.

"Shit, there he is!" announced the eagle-eyed Riko.

Against three Magical Girls the terrified suspect didn't even have a chance. Riko and Yukari took the opportunity to scatter around the small offices and flank him from behind while Homura tried to coax him into surrendering. They didn't have any luck at resolving the incident non-violently: he suddenly lunged at Homura with the sharp knife, and Riko was forced to drop him with a well-placed taser dart fired into his back from point blank. Homura winced at the suspect writhing on the ground, thankful the high-voltage shock hadn't stopped his heart.

"There's one more reason for Major Fujimoto to be pissed at us," Yukari cheerfully pointed out. "That was supposed to be his suspect."

"Great, just great," Homura laughed. "Good thing we have Major Takano running interference."

They had to wait for a squad car to arrive to take custody of the suspect before they could continue their sweep. Homura rolled her eyes when she thought of the paperwork she'd have to do the moment she got back into the office – sometimes, catching suspects almost wasn't worth the trouble it meant.

**End Chapter 2... To be continued**

[Author:] Thanks for reading! I think I might try to take a few days off; this pace is exhausting.

Did you know I also write _original fiction_? No really, it's true – I have 4 full novels, over 450,000 words, and I'm really hoping to get them published some day. If you enjoyed this, do you have any useful advice on how to break into the brutal and thankless industry that _is_ fiction writing? I would really appreciate it! I promise that I have big plans for this To Be Continued so please tell me what you think!


	3. Chapter 3: A Poisoned Bouquet

**Chapter 3: A Poisoned Bouquet**

A thorough search of the murderer's apartment and personal effects turned up nothing of value. He had lived an austere life, eating little and drinking only water, given to meditating in front of a small idol of Kali, Hindu goddess of destruction. His computer might have provided important clues about what inspired him to commit the attack, but it sat in the corner, inert, with its hard drive missing. Yukari spent days trying to recover data from RAM, but it was well and truly useless. All the while, the three Mahou Shoujo were shaken by the growing stench of Abominations. The trio swept the city numerous times and turned up nothing – it was like they were everywhere and nowhere all at once. Another unsettling fact was that construction in the city tapered off to a trickle, and massive amounts of resources were being diverted by the government for some great secret project.

Minutes, hours, days, and weeks went by at an interminable pace.

Progress on the Abomination Detector Mark 4 was slow to nonexistent. Yukari worked on it listlessly in between the girls' efforts to hunt down and exterminate small packs of Abominations. One Abomination fused with a human before they arrived on the scene, and he shot six people on the subway before Riko put him down with her pistol; just another casualty of the never-ending war. Kyubey was even more reticent than ever. Apparently, his people were of mixed opinion on how to deal with the increasing threat of extrastellar invasion of the Sol system. Homura set her mind to her duties, trying not to be overwhelmed by a sensation of ominous, growing darkness.

On one a hot day in June Homura was in the shower after getting home from work, trying to wash off some of the clinging stickiness of Tokyo's humid summer. She was surprised by a priority phone call while she was still lathering herself with soap, and more surprised to see that it was from her superior, Major Takano. She cut the water, still dripping with oily suds.

"Accept call," she instructed the house computer. "Voice only."

"Captain Akemi. Get to the office as soon as possible."

The Major sounded serious.

"But –" Homura began, but Takano had already cut the call.

Almost immediately, another call came in, this one from Yukari.

"Captain! Have you heard? It's bad!" Yukari sounded shaken.

"What is?"

"Just… turn on the news and get over here."

Homura didn't know what was getting everyone so upset, but she knew it wasn't going to be good. The holographic projector was very versatile, and she summoned it into the shower and tuned it to Tokyo's most reputable twenty four hour news network so she could find out what was going on while she finished getting all the soap out of her hair. Her heart sank to the bottom of her feet when she saw the live feed from the network's helicopter; there were dozens of ambulances and emergency vehicles jostling for position outside the massive Shinjuku Picadilly cineplex. The flickering strobes cast garish shadows in the last fading sunlight of the evening. Homura scanned the quickly moving news crawl.

"SARIN GAS TERRORISM STRIKES SHINJUKU. 7 DEAD CONFIRMED SO FAR, SCORES GRAVELY INJURED."

Homura climbed back into her sweaty uniform without drying off, rushed downstairs, and roared back to the police headquarters on her Hayabusa, siren blaring.

The headquarters of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police was in a mad scramble, and nobody even had time enough to glare at Captain Akemi as she waited impatiently for the elevator to take her up to the SHISU office. She could feel the ground pulsing with demonic energy from far beneath her feet, and there could be no doubt that this latest attack was somehow related. Riko, Yukiko, and Major Takano were all waiting for her when she got into the office, and even Kyubey kept a silent watch from on top of a bookshelf on the windowless western wall. Homura was surprised to see a stranger in black robes sobbing in a chair, surrounded by her angry-looking companions.

"Captain." Takano greeted her gravely.

"What's all this?" Homura asked, motioning at the seated interloper.

"His name is Adachi," explained the Major. "He turned himself in an hour ago; said he knew something about an impending terrorist attack."

"I tried to stop them. I swear I did," the man said, strangled by his weeping. "I came here as soon as I could get away, but it was too late."

"Who?"

"Shining Star," Riko said.

Adachi nodded. "They told us they made a deal with the new gods. They told us we had to make a sacrifice to them. I didn't want to go along with it, but I was scared! I didn't know what to do! I tried to convince them that such gods are unfit for worship, but they locked me up in the basement and I couldn't get away. I was only able to get away this afternoon after they left to commit the attack."

Major Takano spoke sternly. "You'd better tell us everything you know, young man. You are in a great deal of trouble."

This only brought fresh sobbing from the robed figure, and Homura realized that he was barely an adult, probably not more than nineteen or twenty. A scared, impressionable young man who could be looking at life in prison just by association.

"Let me handle this," Homura said, putting her hand on Takano's shoulder.

Takano just shrugged, in the end, he genuinely trusted her. Homura turned to Adachi.

"You don't want anyone else to get hurt, do you?" Homura asked the man gently.

He shook his head.

"You'd better tell us everything you know. Start at the beginning."

The man took a deep breath, and got a faraway look in his eyes.

"My father joined Shining Star five years ago. At first, it was a normal religion; we prayed, we fasted, we gave alms to the poor and we worshipped the stars as great gods. My father didn't make me go, but I wanted to emulate him so I convinced him to allow me along. It was fun. There were other people my age – cute girls, too – and we were all filled with a sense of belonging. It was like sharing the best secret in the world with friends. But then things started getting strange."

"How so?" Major Takano demanded, but Homura shushed him.

"Then one day, Bishop Nobody said the gods had finally answered! We were all so excited until we heard what came next. The gods demanded sacrifices." Adachi shuddered at the memory. "At first, it was small things. Bishop Nobody instructed us to buy mice from pet stores. We slit their throats and bled them out into cups, and then offered the blood to the altar the gods gave us. Some of the devotees said they saw wisps of black smoke rise up from the blood and wander around as if they were animals – I don't know if that's true. Bishop Nobody said that it was no big deal. He said that the mice were used to feed pet snakes anyway, and that what we were doing was no worse. And I did it. Oh gods forgive me but I did it."

Adachi broke down and started chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha, and they couldn't get anything out of him for several minutes.

"Who is Bishop Nobody?" Major Takano repeatedly demanded.

Finally, Adachi recovered his senses enough to answer through his tears. "I don't know. I don't know! He always wears a mask and he speaks to us through a voice modulator. I wouldn't recognize him if I passed him on the street."

"Please," Homura said quietly. "Tell us the rest of the story."

Adachi took a deep breath.

"It didn't end with just mice. Bishop Nobody said that the star gods were pleased by our efforts, but still more was required to bring them to earth and usher in a new, eternal utopia. We started sacrificing pigs and chickens. The Bishop said that it was fine – after all, we were going to eat these animals anyway, so we really weren't so different than the star gods themselves." Adachi shuddered. "Then we moved on to dogs and cats. By now, we'd all become used to the struggling and the blood, and we just mechanically carried out whatever task Bishop Nobody put us to. The floor of the temple was sticky with fresh blood twenty four hours a day. Then we moved onto humans."

Major Takano looked up sharply. "_Human_ sacrifice?"

"I didn't do it!" Adachi said defensively. "I tried to run away, but they caught me before I could escape and threw me into a cell with no food or water for days. I couldn't do anything to stop them. Bishop Nobody said that the man was a rapist who got away from justice on a technicality – but who knows if his words were true. When they finally let me out I was badly dehydrated and quite ill. I was helpless to stop them."

"What then?"

"I was feverish and delirious for a week. I overheard them planning… terrible things. It seemed as if the more misery we caused, the more energy the star gods received and the greater their satisfaction with us. There were plans to kidnap and murder children. There was a plan to launch this sarin gas attack. We were performing experiments, to try to see what would create the most energy that our gods needed to appear. As soon as I was well enough to stand, I tried to escape again. They locked me up and beat me viciously."

Livid bruises on his face bore mute testament to the truth of his statement.

"And now they succeeded," Adachi said quietly. "Don't let them get away with this."

"What is their next objective?" Major Takano asked.

Adachi took a deep breath before answering. "They mean to start a war."

Everyone was struck dumb for a moment.

"A _war_?" Riko breathed. "How is that even possible?"

Adachi admitted, "I don't know. But Bishop Nobody said that if we directed enough energy to the star gods, they could help us accomplish the rest. They are planning to sacrifice _millions_ in order to bring these gods to earth."

There was a minute of silence, everyone lost in their respective thoughts.

"Where is this… temple you escaped from?" Yukari asked.

Adachi rattled off an address, and added, "You might also try talking to the owner of Club In Vogue, Takeshi Yakumo. He wasn't actually a member of Shining Star, but he came by sometimes and he and Bishop Nobody seemed like they might be old friends or business partners."

Homura thought for a minute. "Major, can you have Anderusun lead a strike team against the address Adachi gave us? I want to meet with Takeshi Yakumo at the Club In Vogue all quiet-like before we move in on him."

The Major thought about it and shrugged. "That's fine. I'll get Detective Anderusun on it right away."

Finally, Homura said, "Major, could you please take Adachi down to the cells? I need to talk to my foreign contact."

The Major nodded. "We'll keep this kid in protective custody, for now. If what he's saying is true, Bishop Nobody and his minions would probably love to get him back into their hands."

The two filed out of the room. The three Mahou Shoujo looked at each other, astonished by the day's gristly developments. That there could be such an awful attack in modern Tokyo was bad enough, but to find out that _aliens_ and a bunch of human lackeys were ultimately behind it? It was almost unbelievable, but after nearly a decade of working with Kyubey and helping his people secure the latent anti-entropic energy that was released upon the death of an Abomination, there was very little that was entirely beyond credibility. Homura rounded on Kyubey.

"Just what is going on?" she demanded.

"It is a reasonable plan," Kyubey said placidly. "If they succeed at starting a war, they might be able to release enough energy to threaten our stewardship of this planet."

"Do you know who these others – these star gods – are?" Riko asked.

"We've tried to capture one of their ships, but they're remarkably evasive. Their design doesn't correspond to any of the galactic civilizations in our database."

"So you're just as in the dark as we are," Homura muttered. "What are you going to do about this?"

Kyubey replied, "I'll bring this new information up to my superiors. Now we can be absolutely certain that they have hostile intentions."

Before Homura could say anything else, Kyubey wandered behind her desk and disappeared into a shadow. Yukiko showed the other Mahou Shoujo a webpage that she'd looked up on her tablet.

"Look, it's the website for Club In Vogue," she announced.

Riko let out a low whistle. "Expensive tastes."

"Weird people," Homura added with a snort.

"Do you think there's anything left in the operational budget for new clothes?" Yukiko asked innocently.

At first Homura laughed, but the woman had a point. If they were going to meet with Takashi Yakumo without blowing their cover, they couldn't exactly walk into one of the most exclusive clubs in Tokyo in their SHISU uniforms.

Out loud, she said, "Okay, girls. We're going shopping."

Ginza was nearly empty when they arrived after nineteen hundred hours. While it was normally bustling with people out shopping and dining in one of the most upscale shopping arcades in the world, people must have been scared off by the terror attack in Shinjuku. They got immediate service at an expensive boutique despite their somewhat disheveled appearance, and they argued and bantered with sales clerks until each of them had an outfit that satisfied them. Homura chose an unadorned black dress that would have been austere if it hadn't been cut so high and so low in exactly the right places. Riko chose a slick red PVC getup, complimented by a broad collar and glittering bangles on her forearms. As for Yukiko, she picked out a black and white checkerboard A-line dress paired with a shockingly teal shawl that made her look like Jackie Onassis on acid. Together, they would look like rich, moderately unstylish socialites out for a night on the town.

They returned to Homura's apartment to take turns showering and coifing one another's hair. Club In Vogue had a strict no cell phones policy, so Homura made the other two Mahou Shoujo turn theirs off while she watched, and she secreted all three of them in a fashionable purse she had leftover from a previous attempt at dating. When she was satisfied they were all ready, Homura summoned a taxi; after all the work they'd done on their hair, she hardly wanted to get hot and sweaty on the motorcycles in the sultry, fragrant air of Tokyo summer nights.

There was a line to get in, and well-dressed men and women waited impatiently for the doorman to clear them to enter. Homura and the other two glided up with exaggerated confidence.

"Do you have a reservation?" he asked, barring their path through the club's narrow entryway.

Homura almost blew their cover right there by demanding he clear out in the name of the law, but Riko sidled up and put a hand on her shoulder.

"My boyfriend Fukuzawa Yukichi does," Riko said, slipping the doorman a ten thousand yen note bearing Yukichi's face.

The barman looked them over and then snorted.

"Right this way," he finally decided, slipping the note into his suit jacket and ignoring the irritation of the waiting crowd.

The website didn't do Club In Vogue justice. The inside was like a neo-classical five star hotel crossed with a Hellenistic orgy. Naked bodies writhed on several stages modeled after Roman amphitheaters, providing dubious entertainment for the upscale crowd. Women wore name brand dresses complimented by ten million yen worth of jewelry. If anything, the three Mahou Shoujo were underdressed for this party. Homura thought she spied several important figures in Japanese business, but many of the attendees were concealing their identities with masks, making it hard to be certain. Cocktail waitresses wearing next to nothing – and in some cases, entirely nothing – carried platters full of drinks and sold them at truly extraordinary markups. The three women found themselves overwhelmed.

"Now what?" Yukari asked aloud.

"Now, we go find Takeshi Yakumo and find out what he knows," Homura answered.

"How are you planning on doing that?"

Good question.

"Let's try talking to the bartender," Riko suggested. "In my experience, they're the ones who always know what's going on."

The heavy, pulsing beat of the music made it difficult to concentrate. The trio scanned for evidence of Abomination activity, but apart from the low-grade stench that was starting to permeate the entire metropolis, the place seemed to be clean. Satisfied with the result, they scanned the crowd until they found the bar, which was a slab of gilded marble that ran a full thirty feet in length. A giant of man – a black foreigner – eyed them carefully and asked them for their drink orders in accented but exquisite Japanese.

Homura looked questioningly at Riko.

"We're looking for the boss," Riko said. "Takeshi Yakumo. We'd like to see him."

The tuxedoed man smiled carefully. "I see. And why should Mr. Takeshi like to see _you_?"

Homura thought fast. "We're friends of the Shining Star. The Bishop wants to deliver a message."

"And what message would that be?"

Riko smiled. "You know better than that. This is for your boss's ears only."

The bartender chewed on his tongue in annoyance, and then said, "Wait here."

He went behind the counter and made a call on an old-style rotary telephone. He exchanged a few words with whoever was on the other side of the line, and then called a fully nude cocktail waitress over from taking empty highball glasses off her platter.

"Number five, please see these three ladies to the boss's room."

"Yes, sir," the woman replied mechanically. "If you'll follow me, please?"

Takeshi had obviously spared no expense when building Club In Vogue. The naked waitress led them past VIP rooms covered in hand-painted frescoes and filled with genuine antiques. They walked past the kitchen and loading dock, and then up a flight of mahogany stairs that ended on a landing with a set of large wooden doors. The three women followed nervously. The waitress knocked on the door with three pert raps, and then walked away from the Mahou Shoujo without another word. The doors slowly opened, and Takeshi Yakumo greeted them with a cold smile.

"Please, come in."

He was an effeminate man with hair almost as long and well-kept as Homura's. He had cold, passionless brown eyes and looked like he might kick puppies as a hobby. He was wearing a pink yukata that was halfway undone, and she could see that his chest was waxed and smooth.

He led the three to a large white desk and invited them to be seated. Homura positioned herself carefully, having no interest in offering the creepy proprietor a view of her silk panties.

"What exactly can I do for you?" Takeshi asked.

"We want to know about Bishop Nobody," Homura said before Riko could stop her.

Takeshi barked with sudden laughter, and then silenced himself. "And what are you, cops?"

Homura's face must have given something away, because he starting laughing again. "Oh, so you _are_ cops. Well. I can assure you that you'll find no lawbreaking as long as you're here."

"Bishop Nobody is behind the sarin attack this afternoon; dozens will probably be dead before tomorrow morning," Homura hissed. "If you know anything at all that you don't tell us, their blood will be on _your_ hands."

"What makes you so sure the Bishop is responsible?" Takeshi asked lazily.

"We have all the proof we need to put him away for life. If you don't want to join him, you'll talk."

Takeshi Yakumo thought for a minute. He played diffidently with his fingers, and then tapped on the table. Homura didn't push him – she just waited, patiently, and displayed no interest in leaving until he talked.

"You're out of your league, policewoman," he finally said.

"What do you mean?"

He answered with a philosophical tone. "I've got a good thing going here. I'm rich, I'm respected, I'm influential. I would hate for a character like Bishop Nobody to bring it all crashing down around my head. If I give you a lead, will you fuck right off and forget this club exists?"

"That depends. How exactly are you involved?" Homura replied.

Takeshi paused, and then shrugged. "I get him drugs. Cocaine, heroin, amphetamines – I suppose he resells them to fund his operation. I didn't know he was planning on committing an act of terrorism. Why should I want to kill my own clients?"

"You're a drug smuggler?" Homura demanded.

Takeshi just laughed. "Décadence doesn't come cheap. Welcome to the real world, policewoman."

He looked at his desk computer, and added, "Or should I say, Akemi Homura."

Homura felt the blood drain out of her face. Naturally, in this interconnected age it was hard to keep your identity a secret without wearing a mask everywhere, but that he could find out who she really was so quickly spoke to vast and responsive criminal organization.

"We don't care about your stupid drugs," Riko put in angrily. "All we care about is stopping Bishop Nobody from carrying out the rest of his scheme. Who exactly is he? You know, don't you?"

"Do you really think you can handle it? This goes up. _Way_ up," Takeshi said.

"How far up?" demanded Homura.

"Would you believe… all the way up to the office of the Deputy Minister of Defense?"

**End Chapter 3. To be continued...**

[AUTHOR:] Uwaaa~~, I guess I lied. I'm still exhausted though. ^-^; Please leave feedback, it's what fuels my enthusasm for the project!


	4. Chapter 4: Philosophical Investigations

**Chapter 4: Philosophical Investigations**

Homura rang Major Takano as soon as they were out of Club In Vogue.

"Are you going to still be at the office in an hour?" she asked.

The Major sounded grim. "I'm going to be at the office all night."

"Is Anderusun okay?"

"He's fine. He's on his way now."

"Okay, us too." Homura ended the call. "Well, back to the real world, girls."

Yukiko suddenly cried out, "Ugh! With all this ringing in my ears I can hardly think!"

The trio paused and listened. The sound – or was that smell? – of Abominations was just getting more and more intense as the days wore on. And yet, somehow they had also seen fewer and fewer of the demons over the past few weeks despite extensive hunts.

"Just what _is_ going on?" Riko asked pensively.

"I don't know," Homura answered. "But whatever it is, I doubt it's good."

The three took the subway back to Tokyo Metropolitian. The trains were still crowded and they had to push their way aboard, stuffed like sardines between drunk salarymen and college students just starting their Thursday night festivities. Despite the air conditioning, the boiled summer air and tight quarters of the vehicle made it altogether too hot for Homura's liking, and she could feel herself starting to sweat just from the effort of steadying herself against the rocking train car. Homura saw a bored young man carving graffiti on the train's narrow windowsill.

"You stop that right now," she hissed over the rattling of the subway on the tracks.

"Oh yeah?" the wannabe tough asked. "Who's gonna make me?"

Homura felt self-conscious in her dress but refused to back down now. "Me. I'm a police officer."

"Yeah, right," the kid said, and then he caught sight of her eyes.

Muttering something under his breath, he folded the knife up and slipped it back into his pocket, then he got off the train at the next stop.

"Another catastrophe averted," Yukiko said cheerfully.

Riko added, "Our work is never done."

The three women pushed their way off the train at the station that served the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Headquarters. Even two hours after sundown, the megacity hadn't yet surrendered its built-up heat to the cooling breeze of night. The air was still painfully sticky; it seemed to Homura like her hair had been wet for her entire life. There were people leaving the police headquarters in twos and threes, heading home after a long day of filling out forms in triplicate to sustain the vast, Confucian bureaucracy that kept the police running – or obstructed it from running, more often than not. Inside was much more hectic. Another dozen people had succumbed to their injuries from the sarin attack and there was a palpable sense that people were rushing to and fro as busily as possible, as if so doing could relieve some of their sense of responsibility from failing to prevent the attack. People turned to stare at Homura and her companions in their dresses.

"Everywhere you turn up, people die," someone muttered.

It was difficult to concentrate under the floodlight of the collective, hostile attention. She resolved to ignore it. Yukiko kept opening her mouth as if to say something, but each time she shut it again just as quickly. Riko stared straight ahead without looking any of the other officers in the eye. It was a vast relief when the elevator arrived to let them aboard, and the three rode it alone to the SHISU office on the 18th floor. They were all surprised when Kyubey dropped from the ceiling for a quick conversation.

"We discovered several alien collectors at the site of the gas attack. We recovered and disposed of as many as we could find," he informed them.

"Oh really?" Riko asked cynically. "Are you altogether certain they weren't some of yours?"

Kyubey licked his paw without evident concern. "They are of a very inefficient design and resemble some of our early prototypes. They have a conversation ratio of perhaps forty percent, at most."

"What does that mean for us?" Yukiko asked.

"Nothing. I just thought you'd want to know."

He disappeared, and the elevator opened on the 18th floor. The chaos downstairs had also affected the other units in S Section. She recognized others from Major Takano's command clad in black SWAT uniforms, talking nervously. A few looked her direction but they were too absorbed in their own concerns to pay her too much mind. Major Takano and Detective Anderusun were waiting for them in the SHISU office.

"You guys look good," Anderusun said.

"Be that as it may," Major Takano interrupted. "What did you find at Club In Vogue?"

_Are we going to tell him about the drug running?_ Yukiko asked telepathically.

Homura replied, _Why bother? Takeshi gave us what we wanted. Let Section 2 do its own investigative legwork for a change_.

"Not much," Homura said aloud. "Takeshi did imply that Bishop Nobody is connected to the Deputy Minister of Defense."

Takano's face darkened, and he turned to the detective. "Anderusun-san, tell her what you found."

"We broke into the address Adachi gave us at around nineteen hundred twenty. There were about fifteen cultists there, and they must have been expecting us." He sighed. "They all bit down on potassium cyanide pills before we knew what was happening. They were dead in minutes – no survivors."

Homura took a sharp intake of breath.

"That wasn't all, though. We also found a half-dozen canisters of sarin gas behind a false wall. They tried to keep it hidden, but they didn't do such a good job covering up the markings on the floor from where the doors opened and closed. Apparently, they were loading the gas into aerosol containers disguised to look like cans of shaving gel. This wasn't a simple DIY operation, though. The canisters had JSDF markings and according to the lab the gas was a military spec chemical weapon."

"Why would the JSDF have canisters of sarin gas?" Homura demanded. "Isn't that banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention?"

Major Takano and Detective Anderusun looked at one another, and then back at her. For a moment, she felt hopelessly naïve.

"If this were a normal case, I'd get you a warrant to break down Deputy Minister Sato's door and let you squeeze his balls until he talked," Major Takano said. "But if such a high-ranking official is involved, it's not that easy. It's… political."

"What do you mean?" asked Homura.

"Well it's not like I could just get you a warrant for the Prime Minister's arrest either, could I? There'd be chaos. Any small-time police department could just have opposing party members arrested and try to take over."

"We're the Tokyo Metropolitan," Yukiko huffed.

"My hands are tied." The Major scratched the back of his bald head nervously. "And the government would be humiliated if word got out that the attack in Shinjuku was carried out with sarin acquired from the JSDF. They'd do everything in their power to hush it up, up to and including protecting the perpetrators themselves, if they had to."

"How many people have to die so that the politicians can protect their little fiefdoms?" Riko demanded angrily.

Homura shook her head. "All that matters now is how to go forward. I don't care if it's Deputy Minister Sato – whoever is responsible for this has to pay."

"That's not going to be easy. The military is already trying to take charge of the investigation, and I don't know how long I'll be able to hold them off. If they get their hands on the evidence I have no doubt it'll vanish never to be seen or heard from again," the Major said.

Yukiko spoke up and asked in a sing-song tone, "If I were a shady character, where would I hide evidence of my wrongdoing?"

"I can think of a few places," said Detective Anderusun. "My home, my office, hidden in a storage locker at the Tokyo Central Railway Station…"

"You watch too much anime," Riko said. "He'll keep the paperwork as close to his chest as possible."

The five looked uncertainly at one another.

"Sneaking into his office at the Ministry of Defense would be next to impossible," Homura admitted. "Let's try the easier target first – his estate. Major, you really can't get us a warrant?"

"Not without putting you in even more danger than you're already in. My suggestion, young ladies, is don't do it – and if you do it anyway, don't get caught."

"Detective Anderusun, is there any way for you to get us blueprints for the estate?"

Jyohan bit his cheek and thought about it. "Maybe. His family is old money, so their mansion was probably built before the laws about permit applications were standardized. But if he's done any remodeling in recent years, the building permit applications might be on file somewhere with the city. Of course, there's no guarantee that - "

Homura interrupted him. "We'll just do whatever we can. See if you can find them."

Major Takano's cell phone buzzed, and he glanced at it with evident disgust.

"Booked solid at meetings for the next four hours," the man groaned. "And it's past two thousand hours, already. Damn these terrorists. I don't think I'm ever going to see my wife again. You got off lucky, Captain Akemi; they're not even a little interested in what you're up to right now."

The Major got up and left without another word. Feeling guilty, the four collectively decided to stay late and catch up with some of the department's metaphorically teetering stack of electronic paperwork. Homura realized she hadn't eaten since breakfast, and they ordered takeout to be delivered post-haste. At the captain's insistence, Yukiko got to work cleaning the janitorial nightmare that the SHISU office had become. Riko pounded out one Incident Report after another, explaining to police posterity what exactly the Special Investigations S Unit had been doing with its time for the past several weeks. Homura researched everything she could find out online about the Deputy Defense Minister. Detective Anderusun punched one search query after another into his web browser, trying to find the magical incantation that would reveal everything they needed to know about the Sato estate. Minutes became hours, and it was two hundred hours before Homura finally laid down in her own bed to sleep.

She awoke the next morning feeling dizzy. Her dreams had been vague, fitful nightmares, and she'd spent the night running away from some undefined threat nipping relentlessly at her heels. She quickly assembled breakfast of miso soup, rice, and grilled fish, eschewing the Western-style breakfasts she traditionally preferred. She used the last of her coffee beans to make a strong cup of Joe and gave into temptation to allow her household computer to automatically order more. She forced herself to slowly and leisurely drink the coffee instead of gulping it and heading out the door, and she turned on the TV news to let her heart rate settle before heading back to the fire at the office.

Naturally, it was still wall-to-wall coverage of the attack in Shinjuku. The official death toll had risen to forty five, and Homura winced. The Japanese were a characteristically law-abiding people, and it was shocking to see an act of terrorism like that committed by Japanese against Japanese on Japanese soil. Even more worrisome were some of the statements being issued from the Ministry of Defense. Some people in the organization were intimating, subtly but unmistakably, that Chinese nationals were behind the attack. There were protestors outside the Chinese consulate, and several Chinese owned businesses had been pelted with rocks by an angry crowd. The General Secretary of China vehemently denied any involvement, and Homura knew from Anderusun's briefing that somebody was spreading a pernicious and altogether dangerous rumor.

She gulped down the last of her coffee, and she headed down to the parking garage in her SHISU uniform. She saw the cute guy from upstairs getting into his car – and yet again, she had no time to exchange any but the most perfunctory pleasantries before climbing on her motorcycle. As if just being a Mahou Shoujo wasn't bad enough! Her job at the Met was going to guarantee that she would die alone if it went on like this. The motorcycle roared to life and she drove through the busy streets of Tokyo back to the police headquarters. She'd only been away from the office for eight hours.

Yukiko was working on the Witch Detector, Mark 4, and Anderusun looked like he'd slept at his desk. A few minutes after Homura arrived Riko trickled in and looking somewhat the worse for wear.

"Did you find anything?" Homura asked Anderusun with a sigh.

He nodded. "The Sato family got a building permit two years ago to renovate the second floor and add a greenhouse. Either the building inspector was bribed or wasn't paying attention, though; the blueprints aren't at all standardized."

"He was still the Deputy Minister even then," Riko pointed out. "They probably didn't feel it a good career move to inconvenience him."

"I suppose not." The detective spread a dead tree printout of the plans across Homura's workstation. "I also looked into his public schedule. Sato and his wife were supposed to be in Kuala Lumpur all week, organizing a joint military exercise, but he's been resting in his hotel room due to an 'undisclosed' illness."

"I wonder what that bastard is up to. Well, maybe that's good news for us; if he and his wife are out of town, that just leaves his children and servants to worry about."

"Both his kids are attending classes at KyotoUniversity. They're not likely to randomly show up at home while their parents are out of town. As for his household servants, there's not much public information on that, naturally."

Homura thought for a minute, distracted by the constant, nagging tug of the Abominations that wouldn't turn up no matter how thoroughly they searched.

"We'll have to do a stakeout. When we find out who works for Sato, we can put them under administrative detention without completely tipping our hand."

Yukiko pouted. "That's cold, Homura."

"Someone released poison gas in a movie theater," Homura pointed out. "We have to follow every lead we've got before something even worse happens."

Major Takano wrangled them an undercover surveillance van marked with TEPCO insignia, and Homura drove the four members of the SHISU team and parked it by a power line outside of Sato's estate. A utility company van could stop anywhere and it would never look out of place. The vehicle was packed to the gills with listening devices and cameras, and even came equipped with a tiny, highly maneuverable drone no bigger than a dragonfly. Riko was the only one of them who had the patience to pilot it effectively, and she wiggled it between a small gap that lead into the Sato estate's attic. Yukiko and Homura watched intently over her shoulder while she carefully explored the house.

Riko slowly guided the machine into the master bedroom, careful to keep the noise of its wings to a bare minimum. Then Yukiko broke out into peals of giggles.

"Ohmygod," Yukiko gasped.

"Well, that answers one question I never asked," Homura added.

"Tee. Em. Eye."

"What?" demanded Anderusun, who was busy trying to get the listening device properly configured.

With the Sato family out of town, the maid and the butler had taken this opportunity to fuck on the masters' bed. Homura watched through her fingers while old, wrinkled flesh pounded against old, wrinkled flesh. Suddenly, dying old and alone didn't seem so bad.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Riko groaned.

Homura recovered her senses, and ordered, "Try to get a clear shot of their faces so that we can ID them."

Riko moved the small craft with the utmost discretion, but she needn't have bothered. The two servants were entirely absorbed in their hot, meaty, sweaty task. Homura downloaded a few pictures of their faces and copied them into a search engine that aggregated publically available social media data. It wasn't technically a tool of sound criminal investigation, but it would almost certainly be enough to identify the servants in order to catch them later and put them into administrative detention. Within ten seconds, the search engine had compiled enough data to spit out two names: Sato Kenta (no relation), and Yamazaki Tomoko. Homura did some quick cross-checking and then gave Riko the go-ahead to explore the rest of the house.

It turned out to be empty, which was no great surprise. It was unlikely that the two knowledgeable servants would risk getting caught and losing their job, or worse. Riko carefully evacuated the small drone and returned it to the surveillance van. The stakeout had been a tremendous success so far, but they had to keep watch outside the house to make sure no other servants appeared for a shift change. Shortly after dark, the two servants exited the buildings, locked up, and went their separate ways for the evening. For safety's sake Homura transmitted all the data they'd collected to Major Takano, who would take the pair into custody when it was convenient.

"Now what?" Yukiko asked.

"I guess the coast is as clear as it will ever be," Homura said.

"Hold on a second! I just had a great idea." Anderusun pulled out his cell phone and made a quick call.

"Shinnittsu Security? Hello, my name is Detective Jyohan Anderusun… yes, Jyo-haaaaan. Badge number one-one-eight-two-one-four-six-one-five. Okay, I'll hold."

The three Mahou Shoujo watched curiously.

Anderusun spoke again after a short hold. "You do security for the Deputy Minister Sato residence, isn't that correct? Okay. We're running a few tests on the security grid in this neighborhood and you might receive a false alarm from one or all of the security systems in the area. There's officers on the scene so there's no need for a response from your company. …Okay, sure."

He rattled off his cell phone number. "If you need anything else, you can go ahead and call me at that number. Thank you for your discretion – we don't want to alarm any of the residents of the neighborhood."

Homura was impressed. "Good thinking, Detective."

"Well, you may as well pay me for something. I'll wait in the van and tell you if anything happens out here."

The three women changed out of their SHISU uniforms and into something a little more situationally appropriate. Anderusun tried not to watch, but couldn't prevent his eye from occasionally sneaking around for a quick glance. Each of the three women was as unique as she was beautiful, almost to a fault. Riko was tall and lanky, but she made up for it with a strange, harmonious grace that reminded him of a daddy longlegs climbing up a spider web. Today she wore a violet contact in her right eye and a yellow contact in her left, making her gaze disconcerting. Yukiko was compact and fit, and she had the musculature of a swimmer, or maybe a rock climber, despite spending altogether too much time in front of a computer desk.

_She must work out on the weekends_, he thought to himself.

Homura was short, thin, and aggressive, and she looked like a predatory cat that might pounce at any moment. Her long black hair hung far down her back, almost down to her ass, which might be a tactical liability in combat but the effect was breathtaking at every other time. She caught him glancing at her, and she blushed and hurriedly assembled the rest of her outfit. Black boots, black pants, and a black tactical turtleneck that would conceal their presence while they made their way across the estate's broad lawn. Yukiko struggled to get the pantyhose that would mask her face situated over her head.

"Ugh!" she complained out loud. "I can't believe we're doing this. This is one step up from burglary."

"Captain, what's our objective?" Riko asked.

"First, let's hit that safe we saw in the study," Homura said. "Riko-san, do you really think you can get it opened?"

Riko held up a small tool that was like a stethoscope on steroids.

"Trust me. I've cracked a few safes in my day."

Homura didn't doubt her for a second.

"Okay girls," the captain said, fitting an earpiece into her ear that would keep her connected to Jyohan in the van. "Let's go."

The three filed out of the van and onto the private road that led to several other large estates. Any time they had a quiet moment Homura could hear the clanging presence of Abominations, vibrating in her inner ear like tinnitus. It was driving her to distraction. She stopped for a moment to get her balance and then pushed forward. She waved the go-ahead to Riko, who climbed onto the fence separating the estate from the asylum outside and cut the wire that provided power to both the security system and the rest of the house. There were no klaxons and no red strobing lights, but Homura knew that the machine would immediately transmit a panic signal to its offsite private security administrator. All she could do was hope that Jyohan's phone call did the trick. The other two followed Riko up and then over the fence, landing on the soft manicured lawn on the other side.

They carefully crept across the grass. Homura had had the foresight to demand that they all buy new boots specifically for this mission; it wouldn't do to leave footprints that would just scream "Tokyo Metropolitan Police!" to anyone knowledgeable enough to tell the standard issue police tread. Despite her numerous misgivings, they made it onto the Western-style piazza at the rear of the house without any outward sign of alarm. With experienced grace, Riko drew back, smashed a window with her gloved fist, reached inside, and unlocked the deadbolt. They were in.

Homura turned on her flashlight and a ruddy circle of illumination appeared on the wall of the kitchen. Homura put a red filter over the flashlight lens to make it less likely that it could be seen from the street or sky, and the other two Mahou Shoujo followed suit. Three beams of muted light swept across the walls as they made their way to the study on the second floor. A man-sized safe stood between two large bookshelves, just as they had seen during the drone reconnaissance. Homura and Yukiko kept watch while Riko leaned down with her safecracking device.

_Damn it!_ Riko said telepathically. _It's so hard to concentrate with all this … noise._

Homura nodded. The clamor of the Abominations had reached a fever pitch ever since the terrorist attack, and it was clear that a thorough sweep of the Shinjuku district would be necessary if they were ever going to get another good night's sleep.

For twenty minutes, Riko twisted, knocked, and swore under her breath. Just when Homura was about to give up on the safe, it suddenly popped open with a clang.

_Heyyy~~_, Yukiko enthused. _You did it._

_What's inside?_

Inside, there were several manila envelopes full of official looking documents. They'd hit the jackpot, and on their first try, too. Some of the forms were signed by the Deputy Minister and had to do with routing a shipment of sarin canisters from deep storage to a JSDF testing facility, but the destination had mysteriously never been warned about the incoming shipment, nor had they signed for it. Instead, the Deputy Minister acting under his own recognizance had taken custody of the canisters.

_Caught red-handed,_ Yukiko remarked.

Riko shook her head in the dull lighting. _I'm almost more worried about this other stuff._

Homura picked up another manila envelope and started thumbing through the documents it contained. They seemed to be blueprints for some kind of experimental ship, but she found the design incomprehensible. How could something shaped like _that_ possibly be seaworthy? Another folder was full of even more sinister documents.

_Dark Energy: A Primer on Experimental Methods_, she read to herself.

Despite the danger inherent in lingering, she quickly skimmed a few of the pages and felt a sense of growing horror.

"…probably related to quantum waveform collapse phenomena… subject was clearly distressed… subject was able to jump start a car after several stings to the affected area… has clear implications on future energy resources… 'The methods required would clearly be held to be unacceptable by the general population, and thus have little usefulness with regards to domestic power consumption. However, its military potential cannot be underestimated, especially in conjunction with the propulsion design offered by - ' this word was redacted. 'Due to the sensitive nature of continued experiments along these lines, some work has been delegated to an outside contractor who can be trusted to keep the results discreet.'"

Included were photographs that filled Homura with revulsion.

_Girls, I think we'd better get moving_, she finally said.

_What about those files?_ Riko asked. _Are we taking them with us?_

It was a good question. Maybe they could just take photographs with their phone, and replace the envelopes back in the safe with the Deputy Minister none the wiser. But somehow, Homura didn't think that was going to work. Plus, originals would be much more convincing as evidence than mere pictures.

She finally decided. _Yes, we'd better. Let's do a quick search of the rest of the house. Maybe we'll find a dirty Bishop Nobody uniform with the laundry._

They scanned the contents of all the other rooms with their flashlights, but didn't find anything else worth investigating. To Homura's disappointment, they didn't find anything directly linking Minister Sato and the Bishop, but the sarin files would likely be more than enough all on their own. They got out of the house without further incident, and Homura had Anderusun drive them back to police headquarters while pensively gazing into empty space just in front of her eyes.

"We're here," the detective said at her shoulder after an interminable length of silence.

The trio stopped in the ladies room to change back into their SHISU uniforms. It would be no use to be more conspicuous than necessary while crossing the crowded lobby. Reporters for Japanese news services shoved microphones in her face, desperate to get a statement for the woman who'd been responsible for bringing the perpetrators of the last "terrorist" attack to justice. She shoved them out of the way with a curt, "No comment," and kept walking as fast as propriety would permit. Two guards literally had to block reporters from following the four officers into the elevator.

One of the other Section S employees stopped her in the hall on the 18th floor.

"Captain Akemi, the Major wanted to see you just as soon as you got back."

Homura nodded, tiredly, and knocked on the door to Takano's office while the other members of SHISU went to make copies of the documents they'd recovered from Sato's mansion.

Major Takano looked like he hadn't slept in days.

"I can tell by your face that you brought me more work," he mumbled into a cup of cold coffee.

"It's bad news, sir. The Deputy Defense Minister is definitely involved in the sarin attack. We found authorizations, signed by him, transferring the canisters from cold storage into his own custody."

Takano sighed. "You also broke and entered to get those files without a warrant. Political considerations aside, it might be easy for his lawyer to get any charges dismissed on a technicality."

"He's involved in an _act of terrorism_, sir," Homura said insistently.

Takano leaned back reflectively in his brown leather chair.

"I used to serve in the JSDF when I was your age," he said. "The rules used in criminal proceedings for the military differ significantly from the civilian courts. If we could have him remitted into military custody, they might be willing to overlook your rather dubious methods."

"Riko-san, Anderusun-san, and Yukiko-san are making copies of the documents we found right now. I'll have them bring you copies right away."

"Good. I still know some commissioned officers who might be willing to give us a hand. The Deputy Minister's actions reflect poorly on the entirety of Japan."

Homura nodded.

"Go home, Captain. I'll try to make progress from here."

Homura almost protested, and then she realized how tired she really was, down into her very bones.

"Thank you, sir."

She returned to the SHISU office to see her subordinates scrambling to get all the documents copied as fast as possible. She realized that if she tried to help, she'd only get in the way, so instead she bid them a good night and told them to get their asses home as soon as they'd gotten copies to Major Takano. The cool air felt good in her hair, which waved behind her in the wind like a cape. A squad car finally did try to pull her over, undoubtedly for her lack of helmet, but she flashed her badge at it and they decided to let her continue on her way. The man from upstairs held the elevator door for her when she arrived in the parking garage, and she boarded beside him gratefully.

He'd clearly been building up to something, and suddenly blurted, "HiIknowthis sounds ridiculous and I don't even know your name, but my name is Akira and I washopingyoumight be interested in grabbing dinner some time?"

Homura smiled. "I think I'd like that."

She waved at her rumpled and lived-in uniform and added, "But I have no idea when I'll actually be free. Why don't we exchange profiles and I'll give you a call sometime when I actually have an entire hour away from work?"

"Okay, sure," Akira answered with a nervous smile.

They held their phones together, which automatically shared their business cards over near field communication protocols. He asked her about her day, and she had to tell a white lie and say that it had gone exceptionally well. Finally the elevator stopped at her floor, and she bid Akira an exhausted good night. Homura stripped down and blindly dumped all of her clothes into the automatic washer, grateful that by the morning, they'd be something resembling wearable again. Her sleep was fitful, and the troubling dreams that had been bothering her only grew in their vile intensity.

Major Takano was waiting for her in the SHISU office the next day. He looked like he'd finally, mercifully, gotten a few hours sleep in a real bed.

"I have some excellent news for you, Captain."

Riko, Yukiko, and Anderusun were there as well.

"Yes, sir?"

"They're going to put the Deputy Minister under arrest, this afternoon. He's been summoned back to the Inazusa Experimental Airfield. General Nagano wants you all to be there when he's taken into custody, to thank you for your hard work."

Homura felt herself flooded with relief. "Oh, thank God."

"Are you sure you don't want to come too, Major?" Yukiko asked.

He just laughed. "No, this is all for you. I hardly did anything at all. Besides, I have way too much work to ever dream of leaving the city. The military has sent a limousine for you so you can ride to the airbase in style; it's waiting for you downstairs."

At long last, everything seemed to be coming up roses.

"Thank you so much, Major!" Homura said with a grin.

"Go! It's a two hundred kilometer drive, and you don't want to be late."

The four SHISU officers took their leave, buoyant with relief. While there would always be new Abominations to fight, maybe they could crank the threat level down a few notches now that they were going to put a stop to the Deputy Minister and his plots. As promised, there was a limo waiting for them on the ground floor, and they clambered in gratefully while the driver held the door.

"I can't believe it!" Yukiko gushed.

"I've never ridden in a limo before," Riko admitted.

Homura rifled through the limo's bar until she found what she was looking for: a bottle of expensive imported champagne. She gleefully popped the cork, and poured four glasses of bubbly while the limo pulled out into Tokyo's dense traffic.

"To the Special Investigations S Unit!" she said, clinking her glass against those of the other members.

"To SHISU!" they repeated in unison.

**Chapter 4 End. To be continued…**

[Author:] Is it really over? Have they really solved the mystery? Find out on the next installment, coming soon~!


	5. Chapter 5: Near Death Experience

**Chapter 5: Near Death Experience**

Spared expense or no, one thing the limo couldn't do was grow legs and march over Tokyo's dense traffic. The four officers finished the first bottle of champagne and Homura uncorked a second. By the time the limo finally crawled out of Tokyo proper, all four were good and drunk.

"And then the Abomination was all like, roar. And do you know what I did? I roared right back and then stabbed him in the face," Riko narrated with an uncharacteristic giggle.

All four of them broke into laughter.

"Is there another bottle hiding somewhere?" Jyohan asked.

"You guys. You guys," Homura announced. "You guys. That's enough. We can't be totally smashed when we show up for General Nagano's photo op."

She was surprised to discover she already had a pounding headache; how could a hangover come on so quickly?

The limo took the mountain grades that led to the airfield at a slow, steady pace, which suited the four just fine. All three Mahou Shoujo were complaining about headaches, and Homura was glad they'd still have another two hours or more to recover before presenting themselves to the General. Instead of getting better, however, they found that their headaches were getting steadily worse. Additionally, the characteristic sub aural shriek that indicated the presence of Abominations just got stronger and stronger.

"What's going on, Captain?" Riko asked, all seriousness again, though still a little fuzzy from drink.

"I don't know."

Homura almost demanded that the driver stop the car. But if they were walking into a trap, there was little they could do except spring it and hope that they would prove stronger. There was no other way to be certain that the Deputy Minister would be stopped, once and for all, but to take matters into their own hands. The limo threaded through the verdant mountains of eastern Japan at a snail's pace; navigating the behemoth around hairpin turns must be no easy task for the chauffer. Homura passed around bottles of Pellegrino from the limo's fridge, trying to dispel the ringing in her head that was growing into a painful crescendo.

At last, the driver pulled to a halt at the gate to Inazusa Experimental Airfield and handed armed MPs his credentials and authorization. After a brief delay, they passed beyond the tall concrete barricades that separated the airbase from the rest of Japan.

"Homura-chan!" Yukiko exclaimed. "What on earth are those?"

Homura leaned forward and peered out of the window at where Yukiko was pointing. Sure enough, assembled on the tarmac were some of the strangest buildings she'd ever seen. They looked like bulbous, uneven skyscrapers lying on their sides, supported above the runway on colossal skids. There was something repulsively organic about the strange constructions and they absolutely reeked of the presence of Abominations. There could be no doubt that the Deputy Minister had been up to something genuinely horrid. Homura immediately thought back to the ship design blueprints she found in the Sato's files, but here they were a dozen kilometers from any harbor…

"I don't know," she finally admitted.

The limo drew to a halt in front of the airbase's main administrative building. The driver held the door while the four of them got out, and they were immediately greeted by four MPs carrying Howa Type 020 automatic rifles. Homura realized with a growing sense of alarm that these soldiers had been infected by Abominations.

"Captain Akemi, Special Investigations S Unit, Tokyo Metropolitan Police?" asked the leader, indicated to be a Sergeant First Class by his insignia.

"Yes," Homura answered coldly.

_He's fused with an Abomination, _Riko pointed out.

Homura replied, _Yeah, I noticed. But we don't dare risk starting a firefight in the middle of a military base. Let's meet with General Nagano and see what happens – maybe it's an isolated problem that can be dealt with later. Discreetly._

_ It doesn't seem that isolated to me_, Yukiko said.

_Quiet._ But Homura was worried, too.

Homura realized that the infected SFC had been trying to get her attention.

"I said, would you please follow me?" he demanded mechanically.

She brushed a stray hair out of her eyes. "Of course."

So, the four walked together towards the main administrative building. Homura noted that the four MPs chose to flank them, with the leader ahead, but the other three taking positions behind and to the left and right of the party. She stifled a growing sense of unease and made note of the layout of the base as best as she could. The administrative building was three stories tall, and the fresh coat of paint and ultramodern architecture indicated that it had been built sometime within the past couple years. A large control tower kept overwatch on the runways from the right side of the building. She counted seven of the large, bizarrely-shaped vessels sitting on the tarmac, and they were the subject of a huge bustle of activity. Crews were loading pallets of JSDF crates aboard the ships, and then Homura saw something that made her blood run ice cold.

_Riko, Yukiko. What are _those?

The other girls turned to look.

_Those must be Kyubey's aliens,_ Riko said at last.

They stood around three feet tall, and resembled lizards standing on their hind legs. They had green, scaly skin, and paws that sported a trio of wickedly sharp talons. They were working in teams around the humans, and they barked at one another in sharp, guttural squawks that reminded Homura of nails sliding down a chalkboard. Some of them carried electronic gear and gazed intently at the readouts. While standing, they balanced on their hind legs and tails, but she saw one running between groups on all fours. Before Homura could try to get a closer look, the MP behind her nudged her forward through the open doors of the administrative compound.

They were led into a large office on the far right wing of the third floor. Perhaps half the scrambling officials they encountered on the way were clearly infected, and Homura felt a sinking sensation as she imagined fighting their way through an entire base of armed and trained soldiers. Mahou Shoujo or no, they wouldn't stand a chance. She kept a chilly disposition when the four were finally herded into General Nagano's office, the MPs still standing behind them. The Sergeant invited them to be seated, and, seeing few alternatives, the four lowered themselves into black leather chairs in front of the general's desk.

General Nagano soon joined them.

"Captain Akemi and the rest of the SHISU team," he greeted them gravely. "Welcome to Inazusa Experimental Airfield. I hope your trip was pleasant?"

"What the Hell is going on here?" Yukiko demanded.

"Perhaps we should wait for Deputy Minister Sato to arrive," the General said with a twitch of his lip.

"Like Hell!" Riko cried.

"But first…" The General tapped a button on his console and spoke into his intercom. "Doctor Ichikawa, if you'd please?"

Homura motioned to stand, and she was roughly shoved back down into her seat by the MP standing behind her.

"Whatever you're up to, we _will_ stop you," she vowed with a snarl.

"We shall see. Ah, Dr. Ichikawa, thank you for your prompt arrival. You can go ahead whenever you're ready."

Homura twisted in her chair, and peered around the large Sergeant MP. An elderly, hunchbacked man in a white lab coat shuffled into the room, pushing a cart bearing a huge nest of batteries and wires. In spite of herself, Yukiko lit up with interest as the scientist fiddled with a touchscreen control module. The centerpiece of the device appeared to be a coil around two feet tall that resembled a silver hydraulic spring. Ichikawa triumphantly jabbed a button, and the air in the room was filled with the sudden hum of high voltage electricity. Homura once again tried to stand and was quickly subdued by the giant of a man behind her, and one of the other MPs cocked his rifle and pointed it directly at her. Before she could do anything else, there was a deafening crackle of electricity, and then, silence. More silence than she'd ever known.

She tried to _think_ at Riko, and failed. The other two Mahou Shoujo looked similarly distressed. The only one unaffected was Jyohan, but he was still wearing the look of terror he'd had ever since they'd left the limo.

"What did you do!?" Yukiko shrieked.

General Nagano smiled placidly. "Doctor Ichikawa, please accept my commendations. I must admit, I had some misgivings as to whether that alien device would work as advertised, but judging by the looks on these young ladies' faces I'd venture to guess that it's even more effective than we anticipated."

The howling of the Abominations had been replaced by a ringing, hollow silence.

Nagano turned to the Mahou Shoujo. "As you may have guessed, that machine is a 'power suppressor.' I don't pretend to know all the details, but as I understand it, for as long as that limiter is active you will be unable to use any of your so-called magical powers. It will also keep that alien creature of yours from interfering."

Nagano's computer dinged with a notification.

"And look, Deputy Minister Sato is on final approach. He's been most eager to meet you. Follow me, if you will."

"And what if we won't?" Homura gasped, struggling to catch her breath.

General Nagano shrugged good-naturedly. "Then Sergeant Kita will be forced to taze you and then carry you down to the tarmac. I'm sure we'd all prefer for that to prove unnecessary."

Homura glared, but she realized there was little she could do.

"Captain, what do we do?" Riko asked.

"We follow his orders."

_For now_, she added mentally, even though she knew the other three couldn't hear her.

The four Tokyo Metropolitan Police officers were marched down to the airfield at gunpoint, followed by General Nagano, Doctor Ichikawa, and his damnable machine. The bustle of activity at ground level had only picked up since they'd been in the General's office, and flight crews were boarding the strange ships with military precision. A VTOL heli-jet came in for a landing and parked itself on one of the few empty spaces on the crowded tarmac. Naturally, who should step out when the airstair finally touched down on the runway but Deputy Defense Minister Sato himself, flanked by an armed guard and a robed figure fitting the description of Bishop Nobody.

"General Nagano!" Minister Sato said over the roar of the slowing heli-jet blades. "It's good to see that everything went as planned."

"Doctor Ichikawa has once against distinguished himself in handling the alien technology," the General replied.

Sato stepped forward to examine the captured party. Even without her Mahou Shoujo senses, Homura could see the bugfuck crazy lurking in the Deputy Minister's eyes.

"Now what do we have here?" Sato asked with a wicked smile. "Three pretty partridges and one prosaic pigeon. And look - they delivered _themselves_ on a silver platter. It's almost too delicious to believe!"

"We're going to kick your ass!" Yukiko vowed loudly.

Sato barely glanced at her. "I think not. General, what's the status of the fleet?"

"Unfortunately sir, we had to cut corners to meet your accelerated timetable. Nonetheless, without another month in dry dock to run diagnostics on all the subsystems it's probably as ready as it will ever be."

"Well, you can blame these obnoxious _police officers_ for that. Not to mention the stupid Bishop for leaving so much evidence lying around for them to find."

"I did everything I could," protested a modulated voice from behind the mask. "Doomsday cults are not exactly known for their strategic reliability."

Sato turned back to the Mahou Shoujo. "Do you understand what we're doing here today?"

"No, so why don't you tell us?" Homura answered sarcastically.

"At last! For ten thousand years, this world has been in thrall. We have been the slaves and playthings of monsters from another star, who have had neither the courage nor the courtesy to even show us their faces to the public. But starting today, all of that changes. Forever."

General Nagano stood with a pained expression. It was clear that he'd sat through this speech before.

"It is time for humanity to take into its hands its own destiny!" the Deputy Minister cried. "With the help of the Cha'adaru, we will light the fires of a new world order, a new world of human self-determination, a new world where I will serve as God!"

This part was new to the General. "Deputy Minister, what on earth are you saying?"

Sato rounded on Nagano. "_You_! I should have known that you wouldn't understand. You, with all your 'regulations' and all your 'contentious objections!' Well, that's one more thing that comes to an end, starting right now!"

Before General Nagano could react, Sato reached into his suit, pulled out a Sig P230, and shot the officer three times in the chest. The MPs watched the entire scene with bovine disinterest. The four Metropolitan Police officers watched in mute astonishment as the crack of gunfire rang in their ears, and Nagano crumpled to the ground in a bloody heap.

"You see!" Sato put the gun back into his suit, and appealed to the Mahou Shoujo. "That was his fault! That's what happens to all those who get in my way."

"You're just trading one form of slavery for another!" Homura protested.

"Oh, my dear, dear, sweet child, how little you understand. For ten thousand years the Earth has been disunited, riven by fractious debates instigated by the Kyubey race for its own dubious benefit. But the Cha'adaru have given me the tools I need to bring the world together and turn it into a galactic civilization of one race, one language, one nation, and one mind!" Sato was howling now. "_My_ mind! And it has already begun! These soldiers are like extension of my own body! I can see what they see, hear what they hear, and I can move their limbs as if they were my own! They _are_ my own!"

To demonstrate, Sato raised his right hand towards the heavens. The MP behind him copied his movements. Bishop Nobody watched silently, and it was impossible to tell what he might be thinking behind his mask.

"Ugh! Say it, don't spray it," Yukiko said, wiping some of his spittle off her face.

Riko added, "You sound like a villain from a cheesy fan fiction."

"Jeeze," Anderusun said. "Lay off the bug juice."

"Stop this at once!" Homura demanded, but Sato was now listening to no ones' words but his own.

"Behold!" Sato announced. "Behold the ascension of Aerial Battlefleet _Dominion_!"

On cue, each of the seven ships shuddered on their landing skids. The air was filled with the crackle of electricity, and Homura could feel the hairs on her skin standing straight up. With dismay, she realized this was probably the best opportunity they'd have to try and break free.

"Now!" she cried.

Heedless, she charged Deputy Defense Minister Sato with all the speed and strength she could muster without her Mahou Shoujo powers. There was a deafening crack, and she felt to the ground astonished to discover that her legs didn't work anymore.

Homura felt like she was floating in an ocean of warm butter. Her thoughtas came slowly, like they were mired in a pool of molasses. Somewhere far below, a pretty girl in a black uniform lay face up in a pool of blood.

"How sad," she said to herself. "That girl's friends look so sad and scared."

A gentle but inexorable wind pulled her forward, and she felt as if she were flying through a white tunnel. Homura lost all track of time; she could have been sailing forward for seconds, or days, and it would all have seemed the same to her. Suddenly, she burst through to the other side and found herself in a foreign country. It was afternoon, and the air was stiflingly hot and humid. The smell of curry permeated the dusty trail, and people guided placid cattle in a slowly moving line on the crowded dirt road. A red-haired woman wearing a white robe handed out sweets to a crowd of eager children. The woman caught sight of Homura, and gentle brown eyes turned inquisitive.

"Homura-kun? What are you doing here?" asked a familiar voice.

Homura strained herself until she felt a flicker of recognition. "Kyoko… chan?"

The woman nodded and drew back her white hood. There was no doubt about it – it was Kyoko, wearing the face of a twenty year old woman. Somehow she seemed more mature, and more confident, than Homura had ever seen her before.

"I'm not sure," Homura admitted. "I don't exactly know where 'here' is."

"It's hard to explain." Kyoko patted one of the children on the head, and then strode forward to look Homura in the eyes. "Anyway, why are you here!? You've still got a ton of work to do."

Homura searched her memory, but it was like trying to hold water in a sieve. "I don't know. I was investigating a case, and then … something happened? There was a bad man doing something."

"That's why you're supposed to be back there." Kyoko rolled her eyes, and Homura wondered how she could have ever failed to recognize her. "If you don't go back, I'll give you a thousand year beating you won't soon forget!"

"I don't even know how I got here, let alone how to return," Homura admitted.

"Oh, hey, listen. There's somebody else who wants to talk to you."

"Someone else?"

The wind came back, and Homura felt herself dragged away from the hot, dusty village. Back in the tunnel, she travelled at a colossal rate of speed until she popped out in the middle of a huge amphitheater that was empty except for one person on the stage. A girl wearing an intricate blue dress deck out with a white ermine cape was plucking at the strings of an autoharp and creating a spirited but tuneless cacophony.

"Homura-chan!"

This time, Homura recognized the girl, despite her black hair dyed blue. "Sayaka-chan! You're… alive!"

"Well of course I'm alive, silly," Sayaka said, miffed. "I'm still trying to learn to play this damned musical instrument!"

Sayaka carefully put the autoharp down on the floor next to her, and the two women embraced. Homura was shocked at how real she was; she could feel the warmth of the other girl's skin, smell the perfumed scent of her hair, feel the supple softness of her breasts.

"Oh, Sayaka-chan. So much has happened," Homura said, surprised to feel the sting of tears in her eyes.

"I know. You're not nearly done yet, you know."

"That's what Kyoko-chan told me."

Sayaka leaned forward conspiratorially. "She's a pain in the ass, if you ask me. At least she comes to my concerts when she can."

Homura couldn't prevent a sardonic grin. "You give concerts with that?"

"No, dummy!" Sayaka huffed. "I just started playing the autoharp recently. It's not easy to learn, you know! But I've been trying hard to get good a playing the violin, so that maybe… maybe I can give a private concert to someone very important to me, someday."

"I hope you succeed," Homura said genuinely.

"Anyway, Mami-san wants to talk to you."

Again, the tunnel, and once again Homura found herself in a new location. It was a busy café and waitresses cheerfully served tables wearing outfits that suspiciously resembled a magical girl ensemble. There were pies and cakes and sundaes piled high on many of the tables, complimented by big, steaming cups of coffee. Mami ran from one end of the café to the other, giving orders, entertaining clients, and helping out in the kitchen. She caught sight of Homura and wiped her hands off on her apron.

"Homura! How are you here?"

She wasn't quite sure, herself. "I don't know. Where am I? How did I get here? How did we all drift… so far apart?"

But Mami only silenced her by holding a finger up to her lips.

"You've got to go back to your own world," Mami said. "But I wanted to show you that I'm still here and doing well. I'm so happy that people come to enjoy my cooking! Thank you for working so hard."

Homura could only nod.

"Anyway, you-know-who is waiting to see you so you'd better get going."

Homura nodded, and felt no surprise when she was lifted up and into the strange tunnel once again. But this time, instead of slowing down she just went faster and faster, and she began to feel as if she might spin out of control at any second and lose herself forever. She shut her eyes and squeezed them tight as tears trickled out from the corners. Just as she felt she could take no more she suddenly burst through, and found that the entire Milky Way galaxy was far beneath her feet.

"Homura-chan," called a familiar voice from just behind her.

"Madokaaaaa!"

The two women embraced, and it was a long time before Homura could let go and look at her dear friend. Like the others, Madoka looked older, but her eyes were intense with the force of her experience and accumulated wisdom. She was surrounded by interlocking white gears of infinite shape and size, and Homura felt as if she could only understand their relationships, they would represent the laws that governed the entire cosmos. Madoka's hair was, mysteriously, pink, and she wore a silky white dress that seemed to shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow when it was in Homura's peripheral vision.

The two women shared an awkward moment.

Homura didn't know what to say, and finally blurted out, "What's it like to be a goddess?"

"Oh!" Madoka's face turned pensive. "How can I explain… there's… there's so much, Homura-chan! So many worlds, so many parallel timelines, so many interrelated possibilities! I've – I've seen things impossible to describe. Naturally, there's always so much that needs doing."

"I… I know what that's like." Homura could barely speak through the lump in her throat.

"Yes. You've always worked so hard to try to keep the people important to you safe. I'll never forget what you did for me, Homura-chan. Never."

"I want to stay here with you forever," Homura cried, startling herself with her sudden vehemence.

Madoka smiled with compassionate grace. "I'm _so_ sorry Homura-chan, but it's not yet time for that. If you ran out on your world now, you'd always regret it, and the people who still need you wouldn't be able to keep going. There are so many things you haven't finished!"

"Can… can you really see it all from up here?" Homura asked, stuttering.

Madoka answered cryptically. "I can see many possibilities."

"Madoka-chan…"

"I'm so sorry, Homura-chan! But it's time for you to go back. People need you."

"Wait, no!"

But there was nothing Homura could do. The wind returned and she fell back into the galaxy, her hair whipping around her like the coma of a comet.

"Homura-chan!"

"For gods' sake Yukiko, don't touch her!"

"But she - "

"But nothing! There's nothing we can do now but pray, and wait."

Homura fell into blank, dreamless unconsciousness.

**Chapter 5 End. To be continued...**


	6. Chapter 6: Heaven on Earth

**Chapter 6: Heaven on Earth**

Homura groaned and coughed up a gob of blood. She hurt more than she'd ever hurt before, more than she'd ever imagined was even possible. It felt like burning, it felt like a hundred thousand knives were trying to squirm out through her spine and she let out an involuntary moan.

"Homura! You're awake!" Yukiko cried.

"Don't move," Riko cautioned her sternly.

Homura couldn't even think about moving without a fresh wave of pain rippling up her spinal column, kicking everything on its way up.

"What… happened?" she gasped, spiting up blood directly on her naked chest.

"You tried to fight, and they shot you," Riko answered bluntly. "I thought you weren't going to make it for awhile there. They gave us a medical kit, but I'm no surgeon; I got the impression they didn't really care whether you lived or died."

Yukiko added, "We're on the Battlefleet's flagship, _Yamato_."

The deck below her heaved, sending fresh spasms of agony up from her fresh gunshot wound. Homura gasped for a minute, trying to catch her breath against the relentless roar of an ocean of pain.

"What was that?" she finally whispered.

Riko told her. "Cruise missile. The _Yamato_'s defensive grid gets most of them, but sometimes one explodes close enough to damage the ship."

"Homura, we're shelling Shenzhen!" Yukiko cried, her voice tainted with naked fear and helplessness.

Over the protests of the other two Mahou Shoujo, Homura dragged herself across the cold metal deck and looked out of the window on the far wall of the cell. The _Yamato_ was floating two kilometers above the surface of the city, the jewel of the Pearl River Delta, accompanied by the other six ships in the Battlefleet. Great meteors of shining green plasma periodically erupted from each of the ship's central turrets and slammed down into the city below. Rather than attempt to acquire military targets the ships were firing indiscriminately; hospitals, schools, and densely populated apartment blocks were equal opportunity targets for the Battlefleet's heavy artillery. Occasionally, a cruise missile rocketed from the heavens at nine kilometers per second, moving far too fast for the human eye to acquire – but it was still no match for the speed of light, and the fleet's defensive laser batteries handily swatted most of them from the sky. The Battlefleet was not invincible however. One must occasionally get through, because one of the seven ships was listing badly to port.

"We've got to stop this," Homura muttered.

"You're in no condition to stop anything," Anderusun told her. "I'm torn between hoping the Chinese can manage to destroy these ships, and scared to death that they will while we're still aboard."

"Can't we do anything?"

"We're trying."

Homura saw the cell had been specially designed to "accommodate" Mahou Shoujo. There was another magical suppressor device behind a clear transtitanium panel recessed into the wall, and it bore scuffs from the other women's fruitless attempt to break through the unyielding metal. Without their powers they were virtually helpless, and Homura was still in mortal danger from her injuries; for now, escape was out of the question. Dejected, she lay back down in the least uncomfortable position and coughed up more blood.

Yukiko watched the battle through the transtitanium window. Chinese jets rocketed above at incredible velocities, trying to bomb the nearly stationary vessels of the Battlefleet. Most of the incoming fire was deflected by the grid of defensive lasers, but occasionally a rocket would explode close enough to bombard the ship with hot metal fragments and a burst of superheated air. The Chinese defenders had been caught completely off guard by the hybrid alien ships, and they were desperately trying to mobilize enough weapons to overwhelm the defensive turrets, taking heavy losses each successive minute. A bombardment of shoulder mounted SAMs rocketed up from ground level, and two of them managed to get past the laser countermeasures and strike the _Yamato_'s hull. The ship rocked from the force of the impact, and to Homura's happy amazement, the power in their cell was interrupted.

The anti-magical field was only down for a few seconds, but Yukiko reacted instantly. She summoned her sledgehammer out of the ether and swung it into the transtitanium panel as hard as she could. It caved inward under the force of the impact, and the second blow that immediately followed destroyed the panel completely. Homura took the opportunity to concentrate on her injuries, and she _reached_ inside to twist together shredded flesh and burst blood vessels. Meanwhile, Riko sliced through the hinges holding on the gate to their cell with her preternaturally sharp blades. Yukiko delivered a direct hit to the alien magic suppressor just before the power returned, rendering it into a useless hunk of mangled wiring and metal.

"What a shame!" Yukiko exclaimed, staring at the ruined machine.

Riko rolled her eyes. "Let's get out of here before they figure out we've broken free."

Homura was finally feeling well enough to stand, and she gingerly picked herself up to her full, unassuming height. Her back still ached, and her black skirt was caked with dried blood, but she was standing.

"You're a mess. Here."

Riko tossed her an orange prisoner jumpsuit from ones she found hanging in the cellblock's closet, and Homura carefully changed into it, one limb at a time. Fortunately, Sato had failed to recognize his danger, and apart from the four of them the entire brig was empty. Just as they were about to open the bulkhead door and exit into the ship's corridor, there was a sudden crash from inside their cell. The strangest thing Homura had seen all day took a pair of lurching steps towards them.

It stood three feet tall and was made of dark green alloy with muted gold trim. It was bipedal and humanoid, but even so, something about it seemed faintly familiar. Yukiko suddenly recognized the two big, floppy ears on the head and broke into a fit of giggles.

_Mahou Shoujo! I've been authorized to help you directly. We must scuttle this ship at any cost!_

Yukiko was helpless with laughter. "It's Kyubey in a chibi mecha!"

"That's _your_ alien?" Jyohan asked with a faint tinge of awe.

Homura answered, "It's an idiot in a silly suit. Anyway Kyubey, how are we supposed to bring this vessel down by ourselves? Yukiko can't just start hitting random walls with her sledgehammer."

"Our fleets are in combat high above your planet right now." Kyubey spoke using the suit's external loudspeaker for the benefit of Anderusun. "I don't know much more than that, except that we're losing! The energy this bombardment is funneling up to the enemy fleet is giving them a powerful edge in battle, and until we can put a stop to it, we're in very real danger of losing this fight."

Though his race strongly prided itself on its lack of strong emotions, if Homura didn't know any better, she'd imagine she heard Kyubey's voice tinged with genuine fear.

"Besides," the little alien went on, "your people are dying, too. If Sato succeeds - both of our species are doomed."

Homura thought back to the mind control the Deputy Minister had over the JSDF soldiers, and shuddered at the idea of that becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

"Okay," she finally said. "We'll clear this ship room by room if we have to!"

The three Mahou Shoujo took up positions around the door that exited the brig, with Kyubey covering their rear. Naturally, the party had been disarmed before being thrown into their cell, so Anderusun was worse than useless in a fight. They searched a weapons locker but came up empty - unfortunately, Sato's group hadn't gotten around to equipping all the drop boxes with weapons and armor. Yukiko stood at the ready with her sledgehammer, Homura gave her the go-ahead to open the bulkhead leading out into the rest of the ship.

There might not have been any guards in the brig itself, but the party was almost as surprised by a small group of six chest-high Cha'adaru sitting at a control board immediately outside the brig as they were to see the escapees. They were exchanging stories instead of watching their security monitors, so they'd failed to adequately position themselves against the sudden onslaught of the Mahou Shoujo. Yukiko bolted to the right while Riko juked left, and Homura steadied herself against the deck and unleashed a bolt from her bow that nearly vaporized two of the aliens where they stood. Even Kyubey helped - despite the limitless comic potential of his mobile suit, it proved quite agile in combat, and he killed two Cha'adaru in rapid succession. Riko got the one on the far left as his the first shot from his plasma pistol went wide. Yukiko slammed the one on the right with her colossal war hammer, but he was quick; while she smashed his leg into a violet, bloody paste, he managed to slam a button on the control panel before succumbing to her second blow. Klaxons blared, and several red lights on the control panel went purple.

"The color of their blood," Anderusun observed.

"Great. So much for doing this quietly," Homura muttered.

"Homura-chan!" Yukiko cried. "This bulkhead is sealed shut!"

Sure enough, the door that led out of the brig control room was fastened tightly thanks to the one guard who'd lived long enough to set off the alarm.

"I guess you'll have to break it down. Oh well - they knew we were coming, anyway. Kyubey, they'll be waiting for us, so make sure to provide her with cover!"

The two squared off against the door, their ranged weapons at the ready, while Yukiko hammered down the bulkhead door with brute force. Homura kept her bow trained on the portal, and trusted that Kyubey was also prepared to do what was necessary. The moment the door fell of its hinges with an echoing clang, a burst of plasma fire erupted into the room. Jyohan took a hit and went down with a muffled grunt. Homura felt burning agony in her right breast and she fell, struggling to concentrate on just breathing. Yukiko and Riko were unscathed by the sudden barrage, and, putting their companions out of their minds, they rushed the waiting Cha'adaru while Kyubey provided covering fire with his mech.

None of the Cha'adaru got a second shot. Riko's mismatched blades carved through the lizard people's flesh like butter and Yukiko hammered the ones she missed into a paste of blood and bone fragments. The two surviving Cha'adru tried to take cover, but the ship's narrow corridor offered little in the way of tactical repositioning. Kyubey shot them down from behind even as they tried to flee.

Homura lay gasping on the metal deck for the second time in recent memory. Trying to push aside the pain, she focused her mind and magical energy on the smoldering wound she had taken from the alien's pistol fire. Her entire right breast was charred into little more than a lump of boiled fat, and the air stank of ozone and charcoal. The intense pain made it almost impossible to gather enough energy to even jumpstart the healing process. She rolled onto her back

"Help," she rasped.

Yukiko rushed over and leaned down beside her.

"Oh my God. Hang on, Homura-chan!"

Riko attended to Jyohan while Kyubey kept the broken bulkhead covered.

"It's not too bad," he mumbled with a groan.

Riko sighed. "Hush. I don't think my magic can do much for you, but let's at least get it bound up."

"Cauterized. I can still fight."

"Don't be stupid," Riko answered sharply.

Meanwhile, Homura and Yukiko concentrated on trying to restore some semblance of humanity to Homura's ruined chest.

"Gods," Homura admitted. "Didn't think... anything... hurt this much."

"Just stay quiet."

It took several minutes before the party was even remotely able to advance. Kyubey kept careful watch on the door while the other four tended to their injuries. Though her flesh was still blistered and raw, the combined magical energy of Homura and Yukiko had been enough to restore Homura to a recognizably female appearance.

"Looks like I ruined another outfit," Homura coughed, looking down at the mangled and gore-stained prison tunic she'd put on when they escaped from their cell.

"Don't worry about it. You're so drop-dead sexy I'll bet even the Cha'adaru get distracted," Yukiko told her with a grin.

Homura felt embarrassed by her exposed chest, but wounded dignity was a luxury she could ill-afford as long as the Battlefleet was still terrorizing the megapolis below. Meanwhile, Riko examined Jyohan's injury with a wince. The plasma pistols carried by the aliens were chillingly effective at charring human flesh, and she could see blackened bone through the cauterized meat of his shoulder.

"It's not bad," he whispered, but the silent tears rolling down his cheeks gave lie to his attempt to be tough.

"Homura, Yukiko." Riko was quiet. "Help me try to seal this."

Despite the combined efforts of three Mahou Shoujo, Jyohan's flesh was not responsive to their healing energy. Though the wound looked a little better, he was clearly still in critical danger.

Riko consciously steadied her voice, and announced, "If we don't get him medical attention soon, he'll lose his arm."

The detective looked terrified.

Homura ordered, "Jyohan, keep behind us. But we can't stay here; there's bound to be more guards on the way. I guess we'll just have to wander the ship blindly until we find the bridge."

The party made its way to the end of the corridor, blocked by another sealed bulkhead. Obviously the security alert that the surviving Cha'adaru had set in motion had also locked down the ship's internal firewalls. Homura was just about to direct Yukiko to beat the door down when she saw a touchscreen panel that appeared to control the door. She pressed her finger against the tactile buttons raised on the screen, but to no avail; the panel just flashed a cryptic purple warning at her each time no matter which button she pushed. In frustration, she summoned her bow and fired a bolt directly at the panel. The door was sealed electromagnetically, and to their amazement, destroying the security panel was enough to disable the lock. All three of the Mahou Shoujo working together with magically-augmented strength were just strong enough to haul open the sealed door.

"Not too clever on security," Yukiko pointed out.

Riko rolled her eyes. "Maybe you should ask for a job."

The next section of corridor was empty. A few of the doors were labeled with strange alien script, and occasionally, someone had taped a butcher paper sign underneath with a Japanese translation.

"Port Amidships Cargo Hold," Riko read. "Sounds exciting."

Homura grimaced. "Alas, it doesn't sound like going in there and smashing crates will bring down the _Yamato_."

"Homura, we must hurry!" Kyubey interjected. "Our fleet is down to 60% operational capacity."

She nodded. "Okay. Next corridor."

The next bulkhead opened to three Cha'adaru mechanics arguing over an opened service panel, guarded by two nervous-looking humans carrying Howa 020 automatic rifles. Kyubey and Homura dropped them without a moment's hesitation, and the mechanics scooped up the unfamiliar weapons and aimed them uncertainly at the party. One managed to get off a single shot before all three fell to the combined force of the party's ranged weapons, and the bullet ricocheted wildly around the small corridor before finally slamming into Kyubey's armor and skittering harmlessly to a stop.

"Jeez!" Yukiko shrieked. "Somebody could get hurt."

"Har fucking har," Riko hissed back at her.

Just then, a small squad of Cha'adaru exited from one of the adjacent rooms, labeled "Cha'adaru Quarters 2," with their pistols at the ready. The next few minutes were a blur of steel and fire. Kyubey and Homura had to check their fire to avoid hitting Yukiko and Riko, who rushed in with their melee weapons swinging wildly. Though the plasma pistols the aliens carried were exceedingly dangerous, their lack of bulk in comparison to a fully-grown human made it easy to overwhelm them with aggressive advances. The Cha'adaru were taken down rapidly, though Yukiko received a nasty scratch across her lower belly that magic couldn't heal quite fully.

"Homura! We're never going to get to the bridge if we have to keep fighting battalions of these things every time we advance," Riko protested.

Homura shrugged and shot back, "Do you have any better ideas?"

The ship's layout was unfamiliar to the humans, and they couldn't guess what would be behind the next door. Jyohan lagged behind, slowing them down even further. Homura fired a few times into the panel the mechanics had been working over, but nothing appeared to happen even after she reduced it to a nest of fried wiring and short circuits. The next bulkhead opened up to a brawl. Apparently, some of the skittish Cha'adaru had turned on one another in their growing panic, and they were laying into one another with their lethally sharp claws. One of the creatures already lay dead on the deck in a pool of purple blood, vital organs spilling out of its shredded belly. The seven remaining creatures froze mid-swipe when they caught sight of the Mahou Shoujo.

These survivors were braver; they stood their ground even as Homura and Kyubey tore into them with their ranged weapons. Two of them even charged the party. Riko and Yukiko smoothly stepped forward to meet them, and the pair sent the aliens crashing to the deck in one fluid motion, mortally wounded. After thirty seconds of combat it was all over, and even better, they'd avoided sustaining further injury.

"Killed while trying to escape," Anderusun remarked.

Homura looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"

She looked up where the detective was pointing. Sure enough, this corridor had a door leading into a room labeled as a lander bay. Homura was flooded with relief.

"Come on!" Homura cried. "Anderusun-san, we're getting you out of here."

"But - "

"Do you really want to lose your arm? You're getting out of here; that's an order," she cut him off furiously.

Jyohan protested, but he didn't fail to follow Homura into the bay, covered by the other Mahou Shoujo and Kyubey. There were three long, spindly dropships sitting on the metal deck. Anderusun looked nervous.

"I can't possibly fly an alien landing craft," he said, aghast.

The _Yamato_ suddenly bucked from another missile strike, and it listed badly to the starboard before slowly righting itself.

"On the other hand, I'll try anything once," Anderusun mumbled.

The four escorted him to the nearest lander, and he was amazed to discover the door open at his touch. Whatever they were using for internal security protocols, it clearly didn't apply to the landing craft; it must have been programmed to assume that humans were also authorized users. The inside was a spartan room with handholds on the low ceiling and a command module in the bow. They had to duck to enter; the ceiling was only separated from the floor by four feet, so it was clearly designed to accommodate Cha'adaru. The Mahou Shoujo checked the ship for lingering threats, and then cajoled Anderusun into the pilot's seat. Yukiko watched and directed him from over his shoulder.

"Maybe if you press that one," Yukiko suggested.

"Why _that_ one?" countered Riko.

"Oh, I don't know," the other woman admitted. "I just like that one best."

"Aw, what the Hell, it's _probably_ not a self-destruct," Anderusun grumbled, and then jabbed it with his finger.

As if by magic, the lander lifted up one meter off the deck of the _Yamato_.

"Hey, it worked!" Anderusun exclaimed brightly.

"You're on your own, now, good luck!" Homura said before all three jumped back down onto the capital ship's landing deck.

The other two Mahou Shoujo landed next to her, with Kyubey still watching the door to the bay intently. Homura shocked herself by sending a silent prayer to the universe – a prayer that he would be able to get the lander down safely, that he wouldn't be shot on sight exiting the partially alien aircraft, that he'd be able to get medical attention fast enough to save his limb in a city full of casualties. They watched as Anderusun hesitatingly piloted the lander towards the bay's open exit door, and then winced as he smashed it directly into the foremost wall, sending chunks of metal clattering. Then, he righted himself, and slowly eased out of the bay and into the thick of combat. Homura felt bad about sending him into such danger, but the remaining four would be going into danger far worse – going right into the brain of the aerial monster.

"Well, we did what we could," Yukiko said quietly.

"Captain Akemi!" Riko said. "If their landers keep their command modules in the bow, do you think that might hold true for the capital ships too?"

Homura thought about it and shrugged. It was as good a guess as any.

"Okay, we'll keep pushing forward up the portside corridor," she said.

The bulkhead was still clear, and the four made their halting, violent way up the port side of the vessel. They encountered every possible combination of Cha'adaru, human, and Abomination as they continued forward. Many fled, and the party allowed them to escape at Kyubey's insistence – the top priority was to shut down the ship from the inside before the massacre below could grow any worse. Some stood and fought the intruders bravely, and delivered injuries to the Mahou Shoujo that were increasingly difficult to heal as they became more fatigued. By the time they made it up and forward to a room labeled the flag deck, they were bloody and bruised with wounds that simply weren't healing.

"I feel like shit," Yukiko muttered, cradling her slashed arm.

"Save your energy," Homura panted. "Complaining will just make you more tired."

Only Kyubey seemed largely unaffected; after all, his mobile suit did all the fighting for him.

"Hurry up," he urged. "This might be it."

Exhausted, the three Mahou Shoujo took up the optimal positions around the bulkhead they'd learned from clearing one corridor after the next. Homura disabled the electromagnetic lock with her bow, and the three women dragged open the bulkhead door while Kyubey kept his weapons trained on the opened portal. To their surprise, the flag deck was empty, but there was a mad scramble of sound coming from the room one floor down, visible through an open observation area. Homura put her finger over her lips, and the four crept forward to the front of the raised dais overlooking the bridge. There were several humans and Cha'adaru madly fingering touchscreen panels. Fortunately, they seemed unaware of the intruders, for now. Before the girls could lose their nerve, Homura counted three, two, one on her fingers, and then the four of them jumped down into the midst of the activity on the deck below.

Deputy Minister Sato noticed them immediately, and he stood up from a chair on the bridge that could be most easily described as a throne. He was holding a glowing scepter in his right hand, and the red cape affixed to his crisp JSDF uniform defied everything Homura had ever believed about good taste.

"How dare you!" Sato cried. "How dare you tread on this sacrosanct - "

Homura didn't even let him finish his sentence. Leaving the aiming to the shinigami, she drew back her bow and fired a radiant bolt of purple-hued energy. The shot erupted out and hit the crazed official right in the throat, blowing a charred hole through his thorax. He rasped and fell to the deck, briefly clutching at his bleeding throat before becoming still. Meanwhile, Riko, Yukiko, and Kyubey worked on clearing the remaining enemies from the bridge. After killing several, the survivors scurried off the bridge as fast as their stubby legs could carry them. Riko was just about to start hammering on the ship's controls with her swords when Yukiko reached out and stopped her.

"Wait!" the machinist cried. "It'll be better for us if we _use_ the _Yamato_!"

"Are you crazy?" Riko demanded angrily. "You will definitely get us killed!"

But Yukiko had already climbed into the nearest seat, and she started pressing buttons seemingly at random. The first button she pressed must have killed the anti-gravity generators, because the ship immediately started plunging like a stone toward the city below.

"Turn it back on! Turn it back on!" Homura shrieked in impotent terror.

Yukiko hit the button again and the engines reignited. The ship's automated attitude control brought them back to level hovering.

"Sorry," Yukiko said sheepishly.

Homura was grim. "Kyubey, let's watch the doors in case the Cha'adaru come back and try to kill us. Riko, you watch Yukiko and make sure _she_ doesn't try to kill us."

Yukiko found a navigation ball and started determining how to control _Yamato_'s movement. She broke formation with the rest of the Battlefleet, and spent a couple of minutes familiarizing herself with the controls.

"Riko-chan, take that seat over there," Yukiko said, pointing at an open, blood-stained chair next to her. "I don't think I can control the weapons from here but I'll help you find targets."

Nervously, Riko slid into the chair.

"It's all written in goddamn alien!" Riko complained the moment she saw the status screens.

"Stop griping. Just press things until you get the guns online."

Yukiko rotated the _Yamato_ on its horizontal axis until one of the Battlefleet's other four surviving ships was positioned in the dead center of Riko's targeting computer. Kyubey and Homura watched the door, but it seemed that the Cha'adaru were inveterate cowards; no attempt was made to retake the ship from the Mahou Shoujo's control.

"Riko, are you ready?" Yukiko asked.

Riko muttered, "Not likely."

"Just press the big purple button, drag the crosshairs over the enemy ship with your finger, press it again to confirm, and I think the computer will do all the rest."

Riko nervously followed the other woman's directions. It was amazing how quickly Yukiko picked up the alien technology, but it still felt like they were putting their entire lives in the hands of barely-educated guesses. Several purple warnings popped up in Cha'adaru script, and she scrolled through them quickly with the touchscreen's raised, tactile buttons. All of them felt a shiver below their feet as something very large repositioned itself.

"Come on, come on…" Yukiko chanted, rocking back and forth in the pilot's chair.

The main cannon below the bridge erupted into a gout of glowing green plasma which sped across the ten kilometer separation between the ships in a flash. The target tried to defend itself with its defensive grid of laser batteries, but they were completely useless against the alien plasma weapon. There was a bright explosion from the other vessel, and an angry voice broke over the bridge's comm, speaking in Japanese.

"_Yamato_, this is _Nagato_! Check your fire!"

"You want to tell them something?" Riko asked.

"Aw Hell, I couldn't find the comm if I tried," Yukiko responded. "Just hit'em again."

But the computer had taken over now that a target was designated, and _Yamato_'s laser batteries opened up while the big gun recharged its capacitors. More precise than any human eye could ever be, _Yamato_'s lasers carefully raked the _Nagato_, sending one laser battery after another bursting into flame. This left it almost defenseless against the continuing barrage of missiles. Over the next few seconds several cruise missiles slammed into the _Nagato_ at incredible velocity, and before the _Yamato_'s gun could fire again, it was already capsizing under the hammer blows of the Chinese missiles. Wreathed in a halo of falling debris, it rolled over once, twice, and then gracelessly plunged into Pearl River. The three Mahou Shoujo let out a ragged cheer.

"There's still three more to go," Kyubey pointed out.

_Yamato_ got off one more shot with its main gun, goring a huge wound in the hull of another of the alien hybrid vessels, before the rest of the Battlefleet woke up to the fact that _Yamato_ had inexplicably become the primary threat. Mirroring Yukiko's earlier maneuver, they rotated to face it, and Homura felt a sudden sinking sensation at the sight of the hugely effective plasma cannons pointed directly at them.

"Yukiko! Evasive action!" she cried.

"I'm trying!" Yukiko protested. "I still don't get what half these buttons do!"

The first ball of plasma rocketed into the _Yamato_, and both Homura and Kyubey were sent sprawling to the deck. If it were possible, the klaxons got even louder, and many of the red lights on the control boards went purple. Meanwhile, the other ships' laser batteries scoured the hull of _Yamato_, trying to knock out its defensive countermeasures. It immediately became clear to Homura that _Yamato_ was about to go down exactly like _Nagato._.

"We've got to abandon ship!" she cried.

"Homura! How will you bring down the rest of the fleet without _Yamato_'s guns?" Kyubey demanded.

"We can't do anything if we're dead!"

_Yamato_ was hit by another blast of plasma cannon fire, and with a shriek of tearing metal it rapidly lost two hundred meters of altitude before coming back under control. It was listing terribly to port but this time it failed to re-right itself. Yukiko and Riko looked back at Homura, shaken.

"I said abandon ship," Homura blurted. "That's an order."

Everything went white. Homura could feel her internal organs rattling around inside her body, and though she screamed as loud as she could she couldn't even hear herself in her own eardrums. Her stomach lurched, as if they were dropping in free-fall. When she regained enough of her senses to make out what was happening, she saw that part of the flag deck had broken free and collapsed onto the bridge below. The ceiling of the bridge was now broken open to a smoke-filled and shattered sky. Yukiko was standing, staring in shock at Riko, who was sprawled out on the ground and partially crushed beneath the wreckage of the flag deck. Homura bent down and took Riko's hand, but it was immediately clear the Mahou Shoujo was beyond any working of medicine or magic.

"Homura-chan. S… sorry," she whispered, and then her hand went limp.

Homura stood there, oblivious to the shouting of Yukiko and Kyubey. After everything they'd been through together seeing Riko's lifeless body was almost too much for her to bear. It brought back all those terrible memories over again, all those sleepless nights, all those friendless and spiritually empty days. Dazed, she stared at the corpse that had only moments before been a beautiful and vibrant young woman. A dear friend.

"Homura!" Yukiko grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "Homura, we can cry later but we have to get out of here _now_!"

Homura looked at Yukiko with glazed eyes, but was startled back into alertness by what she saw. Homura had always thought of Yukiko as a bit of an airhead; fun and friendly, competent in battle, entirely too interested in her machines for her own good. But for the first time, she saw the core of tempered steel that made up the Mahou Shoujo's will, and Homura suddenly had an inkling of what had drawn Kyubey to her in the first place.

"O-okay!" Homura said. "We'll jump out through the top."

The ship shook again, and its sliding fall started to accelerate into an uncontrolled crash. Carefully gauging the distance, the two girls held hands and flew up and out through the hole in the bridge, followed closely by Kyubey, buoyed by his mobile suit's jets. As the pair watched, _Yamato_ went down over the provincial border, and tore a deep gash through Hong Kong's Closed Frontier Zone before finally breaking up into a ball of flame and ruined metal. The stink of Abominations intensified from the vessel and then immediately vanished. Apparently, even the foulest of biotechnical Frankenstein creations wasn't able to survive such an intense impact. Now the girls had to concentrate on making a landing without getting killed.

Gliding was tricky at the best of times, and now the Mahou Shoujo were battered and filled with the emotional vacuum of personal loss. They held hands and commingled their energy, compensating for one another's moments of weakness, buffeting each other against the unrelenting force of gravity. Kyubey followed at a respectful distance. They managed to get their velocity down to only a few meters a second before smashing into the dirt in Shenzhen's primary railway station, broken and abused. Homura suspected that her leg cracked on impact and was grateful not to feel any pain; her whole body felt like it was a hundred kilometers away. She lay on her back and stared upwards, side by side with Yukiko. The remaining ships of the Battlefleet continued to hammer away at the city.

"So, that's it," Yukiko said, her voice husky with emotion. "After all that, we lost."

"Maybe not," Kyubey said, touching down next to them.

Yukiko started. "What do you mean?"

"A contingency plan was put into motion," the alien answered cryptically.

Homura laid back and just watched the events unfolding in the sky above. She'd done everything she could; even for Mahou Shoujo, taking down two battleships was enough for one day. The city was in chaos – people were running without destinations, trying to escape by heli-jet or by ferry or by car, clogging all of the escape routes with a mass of fleeing humanity. Sirens blared from all over the city. Homura desperately hoped that Anderusun had managed to get the medical treatment needed to save his arm, but her cell phone had shattered on impact and probably wouldn't get any reception with the city under bombardment anyway. She just watched and listened, helpless to put a stop to the ongoing assault on one of the world's biggest megacities.

"Homura, what are those lights?" Yukiko suddenly asked.

Homura looked up. "I don't know."

"That's our contingency plan," Kyubey informed the pair.

Even as they watched, tiny lights started converging on the remaining battleships from every single direction. Homura gasped when she realized what she was looking at. Mahou Shoujo from all over the world, from every race and religion and nation, were flying in to combat the Cha'adaru. Together, they hammered away at the accursed vessels with guns and swords and bows and every weapon ever used in human history. The Battlefleet withered under their assault; there were too many targets to effectively fight with the main guns, and the laser batteries were impotent in the face of so many well armed and experienced women. With the gunnery computers overwhelmed by the flurry of targets, missiles were able to slip through the ships' screens and tear great gouges in their hulls. In minutes, one of the great hybrid ships fell into the sea, wreathed in smoke and flame, quickly followed by a second, and, finally, the third.

Homura made a choked noise, and Yukiko wasn't sure if the other woman was laughing hysterically – or sobbing.

**End Chapter 6… to be concluded**


	7. Chapter 7: Epilogue

**Chapter 7: Epilogue**

It was a good week to be a journalist. Images of the massive damages inflicted on Shenzhen poured into TV news desks around the world, accompanied by a death toll in the hundreds of thousands. In an unprecedented move, the entire Diet of Japan was forced to resign in disgrace, and the Japanese people were going to be placed on the hock to the tune of tens of trillions of Yen in order to pay reparations to the Chinese. Ultimately, the people of Japan collectively decided that was better than fighting a war instigated by terrorists and aliens. Even the Emperor got on international television, to blame the attack on a rogue element of the JSDF that had mutinied and hijacked an experimental weapons program. And then, of course, there were the aliens. For the first time in history even the US president was forced to acknowledge the reality of extrasolar life.

**Aliens Exist!** blared the Times of London.

**Attack on China: Prelude to the Tribulation?** inquired WorldNetDaily.

And of course, the inevitable headline on Alex Jones' Infowars – **Project Bluebeam Activated **

Riko's funeral was a quiet affair. With her family dead, and the few people she'd still known from her time on the streets resentful of the fact that she became a police officer, the only people to show up at her funeral were Homura, Yukiko, Anderusun, Takano, and the Buddhist priest, though even Kyubey watched from the shadows. Due to the spectacular crash of the _Yamato_ and the forced surrender of all salvage rights to the Chinese government, they didn't even have a body to bury. All of them shed tears in her honor, including the usually stalwart Major Takano.

The Kyubey ultimately revealed themselves to the world. Their strategy of security through obscurity had proved to be a failure after ten millennia, and they were forced to speed up their timetable for interacting with the human species. The trickle of technological leaks became a flood and precipitated huge leaps in medical care, telecommunications, physics, and materials science. When it came time for the UN to choose an ambassador to the Kyubey, the ambitious wife of a blueblooded Washington politician was selected for the task. The Kyubey, however, brushed her aside.

"We would prefer to negotiate a co-prosperity sphere through Akemi Homura of Japan," their representative explained.

The first Homura heard of this was watching the committee meeting on television, over breakfast, and she literally spat orange juice all over her table.

"What?!" she sputtered when she finally recovered her voice.

Homura tried to refuse, but both the UN and the Kyubey prevailed upon her until she finally gave in. She was given an office in the UN headquarters and a large upgrade to her salary, not to mention the most overwhelming official title a human being had ever held – Ambassador of Earth.

In committee meetings the Kyubey came to almost regret selecting her. She relentlessly pursued human interest, and demanded massive payments for the ten thousand year history of human energy hijacking. The Kyubey were also compelled to offer spacecraft designs, energy harvesting techniques, defense equipment designs, and more. In return, Homura offered a treaty of mutual defense, and ongoing payments of significant amounts of harvested Abomination energy. As Kyubey had explained, the Abominations really were "naturally" occurring, brought into being by a human's terror and unmitigated rage, and they couldn't be extracted from the human species without first giving up everything that made them human in the first place. Thus, the newly interstellar human species would still have a need for Mahou Shoujo. All over the world Mahou Shoujo were deputized and given broad authority as officers of the United Nations.

In some ways it galled Homura to form an alliance with the species that had manipulated humanity for so long, but there was no escaping the fact they were both better for it.

Hours slowly ticked over into days, months, years, and the more things changed - the more they stayed the same.

Homura chose to work out of Tokyo and the UN had little recourse to protest. On one hot spring morning she prepared to skim the morning's diplomatic briefing over breakfast, and was brought up short by the priority one item at the top of the list.

"God damn it!" she cried, and then threw her tablet PC against the hard wood floor of their vast kitchen.

She was grateful for the advanced materials science offered by the Kyubey, because the tablet bounced off and clattered into the oven, but remained completely unharmed.

Her longsuffering husband, fellow elevator passenger Sato Akira (no relation,) looked up from his morning coffee with visible dismay.

"Homura, what's going on?"

She felt her lips curl in annoyance.

"This morning, the species we affectionately refer to as the 'Oni' decided to to pursue a seven-oh-one-bee and attempt to board the _UNSS Enterprise_ in the Hé Hua system. The _Enterprise_ pointed out, rightly I might add, that the territorial dispute had not yet been resolved by the Galactic Council, so the Oni had no authority to attempt a boarding under that legal subsection. Harsh words were exchanged, then shots. The _Enterprise_ took a dozen casualties; the Oni haven't disclosed their losses. They _did_ get on the galactic news and lament that the situation is sliding into open warfare."

"They can't do that!" Akira objected angrily.

"Maybe they can. The Galactic Council hasn't taken any sides yet - I guess they want to see who's more willing to commit to the fight. If the situation does devolve into war they'll probably just sit it out and then side with the winner when it's all through. But if we roll over just because the Oni demand it, we'll never be respected as a galactic civilization."

"Same as it ever was," Akira muttered.

Homura had already stripped off her robe and was headed for their bedroom at a clip just short of a run.

Akira asked, "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she shot back. "I'm on my way to try to stop a war."

"You'll miss Madoka-chan's kindergarten graduation!" Akira reminded her, aghast.

For just a moment, she stopped short.

"Oh, God. Tell her I'm _so_ sorry, but Mommy will be home as soon as she can. I'll buy her a whole lake of ice cream when I get home, but a lot of peoples' lives are at stake and I have to do my best to protect them."

Akira smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "Okay, Homura. I know it must be tough to be such an important lady."

"Hopefully I'll be back within a week - with my shield, or on it."

**End Chapter 7.**

**End At the Gates of Water and Fire.**

**Afterword**

[AUTHOR:] Hhhggggh well it's been a tough couple weeks working on this! As long as my job is in season, I think I'm going to have to try limiting myself to shorter one-shots instead of novellas like this one.

Please visit my FictionPress profile! I plan on putting some of the original fiction stories that I've given up on monetizing up there over the next couple days. Of course this site is idiots so I can't post a direct link.

www . fictionpress dot com /u/915326/


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